by By: Karalyn Arnett (@KarArnett)
Who has time to watch local news or national news in the evening? And if you do, are you actually paying attention to the content rather than catching up with friends on Facebook or Instagram? Probably not, but that’s okay because odds are you are still consuming local and national news through social media!
Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter are changing the way people consume news and hear about breaking news alerts.They have worked towards building features on the platforms that make it easier and more intriguing for their users. Did you watch the recent marches on Facebook live surrounding the inauguration? Great – You’ve consumed national news via social media!
Facebook Live is taking off in full force. You can watch anything from local reporters covering a community event to national reporters from CNN covering who President Trump selects for the Supreme Court. I enjoy Facebook Live because it gives you a different perspective. Instead of a “newsworthy” perspective, you are seeing an event happening as what feels like a fly on the wall. I was sitting in Oregon watching political marches happen in some of America’s largest cities such as Phoenix, Chicago, and New York. That is news coverage I wouldn’t of seen if I was only watching local coverage of marches happening in Eugene, Ore. Facebook Live is opening opportunity for tracking news at user’s convenience as well as being exposed to a larger range of news.
Snapchat live stories are another resource to consume to see what is happening around the world. A personal favorite, Snapchat has allowed me to see multiple 10-second windows from people covering natural disasters, political events, and attacks that have happened around the world. One live story I followed closely was the coverage of the San Bernardino attack that happened in December of 2015. December 2nd was right before finals week on campus and I remember being very busy, but I was able to keep track of breaking news updates on this attack via Snapchat. It was convenient and right at my fingertips for when I had a free minute to catch up on the continuing developments, and Snapchat did a great job of creating captions that were informative and digestible for the 10 second windows.
Twitter has not specifically created a tool for posting news updates, but they have created an environment for users to follow popular hashtags that are connected with news events. Currently a trending hashtag is #BlackOutTrump, this is giving people a space to follow the hashtag and interact with others who are tracking and reporting on similar news events. Hashtags are another great way to follow various eyewitness reports and reporters because hashtags are created specifically for one event. Again, for the recent women’s marches I followed #WomensMarch on Twitter to see reports from not only actual reporters, but to see views and opinions of the other people at the marches. Hashtags are the new way to track news events at your convenience.
If your resolution for 2017 is to consume more news, it may not be as difficult as you thought. All you need to do is make sure you are following a handful of news outlets on social media. The majority have started incorporating these tools to get you the most updated news stories and breaking news updates. Don’t forget to scan for fake news though – with these convenient tools come trolls who will try their best to convince you of false information!
The Facebook Live video piece is really interesting here. As the number of people “cord cutting” from cable increases, they are increasingly relying on mediums such as Facebook for their information, including news. It will be interesting to see how media entities handle this newcomer into their space both in terms of content and monetization.
I really enjoyed reading this post! We consume breaking news in the same way, through social media. Snapchat and Facebook are the first platforms I check in the morning when I wake up because I want to know what I missed in the world when I was sleeping. But, I think that Twitter has more power than you think! The explore tab on the twitter app provides live updates on current news and trending hashtags. I would consider the most effective breaking news source because the message has to be perceived in 140 characters or less. This allows the social media strategist to convey the most important part of the message. It’s scary, but social media is becoming the nightly news.
-Jenny Kinsman
Karalyn,
Thank you for sharing your perspective on getting your news from social media! I feel like it’s still considered such a dirty, immature thing to get your news from social media, but it’s how the conversation is evolving! I think it’s more important that people are getting their news from credible, reliable sources than whether or not they’re getting it off Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat.
I also appreciate your perspective on Facebook Live. More often than not I just ignore the “Live” notification and move onto my news feed, but actually paying attention to the news organizations going live may add an interesting flavor to my intake of news!
-Erin Petit
I found this blog post so incredibly relatable! I never like to get into politics and I find it almost boring to sit there and watch the news in the evening. Why would I watch the news when I could be watching the Bachelor instead! I feel like social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter take the news that appears on television and goes more in depth. Its almost better in my opinion to keep up with news through social media rather than tv!
-Sarah Johnson
This blog post was great! I enjoyed how you started calling people out for not watching the news, and if they do they are also doing something else so they are not really hearing what is going on in the world. I personally get a significant amount of my news on Snapchat and Facebook. I like to read articles better than watch a long TV news segment, so facebook articles or two-minute videos really work for me. I also love that I can get real time news from the perspective of a bystander which is what I would be if I were there, it feels more authentic to me. I like how you explained the different ways in which we find our news now, it is very relatable.
– Kate Miller
I enjoyed reading this post as I, personally, get the majority of my news from social media. I’m never home during the news and even if I was, I wouldn’t have enough time to watch it anyways. Social media allows me to read the news and stay updated on current events wherever I am. I haven’t looked at Facebook Live yet, but always enjoy articles on Facebook or Twitter. It’s super easy to follow reputable news sources, like the New York Times or BBC, on Twitter and read the articles as they’re getting posted. Then, you’re getting the most recent news at any time of the day.
-Marisa Cesare