Image Source: https://marketingland.com/library/channel/social-media-marketing
If a study was to be done today on where most people get their news from, the answer will most likely be Social Media. According to Pew Research Center, around two-thirds of Americans get their news from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube (Shearer & Gottfried, 2017). These enormous platforms are used by hundreds of millions of people daily across the world and have a profound impact on the way people think and act. An example of how powerful social media is would be the Arab Spring that happened over five years ago. More specifically a Facebook page was set up to promote and late- on organize demonstrations against then-president Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Another more recent example would be the swift and ample spread of fake news throughout the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. In which supporters of a candidate would “share” articles from sketchy websites which were totally made up. And these articles would get millions of views within days spreading false or biased information.
Image Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/heres-how-to-fix-facebooks-fake-news
Commenting on a recent article written by Steve Kovach, “Facebook and rest of Big Tech are now Big Media, and it’s time we start treating them that way”. The author argues that technology companies such as Facebook and Google are in such influential positions in terms of what type of news the average reader gets fed to, they should also be responsible for and regulated as traditional media outlets. In the article, the author emphasizes on the impact the tech giants have on their users and the ‘purposely designed algorithms’ these companies use to customize what news gets to be shown and to whom it is shown to. In addition to customized news feeds, the author also touches on the trend of increasing investments by Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple to develop originally produced content such as TV shows and movies. These ambitions to replace Hollywood are still in its early phases but it is a step closer to blurring the lines between tech giants and media giants.
Image Source: https://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/08/social-media-agency-feature-maverick-mav-digital-media-web-design-firm/
Looking ahead I believe the importance of social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube will only increase and appropriate regulations should be made by governments to hold them accountable just like existing media outlets. Facebook should be responsible for what gets posted on their website and act as if they are the publishers and not just platforms. They should be responsible for filtering the spread of fake news, hate speech, and other offensive content. This article is especially interesting when because most of us use these social media on a daily basis and we should all make sure that with the greater influence these companies possess comes greater responsibilities.
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Kovach, S. (2017, October 14). Facebook and the rest of Big Tech are now Big Media, and it’s time we start treating them that way. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-and-google-are-now-media-companies-2017-10
Shearer, E., & Gottfried, J. (2017, September 07). News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from http://www.journalism.org/2017/09/07/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2017/