Social networking and news

1. The news is more dominated by social media stories such as new online trends or stories about online stars

2. It broadens people talking about news and therefore broadens the stories audiences have access to

3. Facebook allows people to read stories from around the world so news agendas have to become more international to compete

4. Gerbner's theory of 'mean world syndrome' can be applied as social media amplifies stories of wrongdoing by celebrities

5. Because social media can break stories, news agendas are very focused on fast-paced news

• Some newspapers believe in 'open journalism' where journalists and readers work collaboratively to tell the news
• In the 19th and 20th century people didn't find out news unless journalists covered it
• The internet allows recording and sharing of live events
• The Mumbai Terrorist Attacks in 2008 was when people realised social media was changing the way news travels
  • People in Mumbai were sharing news via Twitter
• A few months later, the plane crash in the Hudson River was broken via Twitter
• The death of Ian Tomlinson and the 2011 London Riots showed how Twitter was a powerful tool in holding those in authority to account

• Facebook was a major force in the election of Trump
• Facebook has faced growing criticisms for allowing fake news on the platform, creating filter bubbles to polarise voters and allowing the data harvesting of millions of users data by Cambridge Analytica
• There is a recent court case involving Facebook and the Australian Information Watchdog where it was caught passing information to the This Is Your Digital Life app used by Cambridge Analytica where it was fined;
  • £500,000 in the UK 
  • $5,000,000 in the US
  • Up to $529,000,000 in Australia