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Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE

Social Media as an Emerging News Source

Lottie Brooks

CDM 4010W-01

Jon Bruning

May 15, 2018


SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE

Abstract

This essay looks at the ways in which social media encourages news consumption and

participation through examination of changing news sources, ways in which online news spreads,

creating personalized news streams, and what the offline impact is of consumption of news

through social media. Currently, Americans are consuming news through an average of 3.8

sources, and millennials turn to social media first. When it comes to the more traditional sources

for news, such as TV, the stats are different. Fully 85% of adults over the age of 65 primarily get

their news from TV, only 27% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 do. Despite the decline

in use of traditional news sources, 85% of millennials think it’s important to keep up with news.

News spreads differently online than it does through traditional media, through differentiating

themselves, and creating positive content that encourages their audience to further discuss

information and share it with their networks. Though many are concerned about the ability to

personalize a news stream, 86% of millennials report that their feeds are comprised of diverse

opinions, not just those of their own. News organizations are adapting to this shift, and

encouraging millennials to get involved with the news offline, too. Digital activism, awareness of

which is spread through news-based social media content, is helping to mobilize thousands of

supporters to multiple causes. The common meaning of news is changing, and news and social

media are merging into an essential tool to integrate news into daily life.

Keywords: social media, news, millennial news habits


SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE
Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE

Social Media as an Emerging News Source

I. Introduction

In a modern world of liking, sharing, and reposting content, many are concerned that

traditional news sources that fail to adjust to the shift and move toward more online-focused

content create a ripple effect, where the younger generation becomes newsless. Though the

general impression of the millennial generation is that they are uninformed and heedless of

current events due to their heavy reliance on online media, research has shown that the opposite

is true. The growth of social media may not inhibit, but rather encourage, growth of news

awareness. This theory can be validated by looking at the migration toward online news, the way

various social media sites compare to one another in terms of their news value, participation in

and arrival to news on social media, comparisons between traditional news sources and the new

model, and what this shift could mean. Exploring these categories of social media-based news

reveals the growth of news awareness, and the disconnect between the perception of millennials

as a news-ignorant generation, and the reality that they do, in fact, access news on a regular

basis.

II. Sources of News

News has evidently evolved from the days of a town crier, and it is seamlessly integrated

into daily life now more than ever. Consequently, more than half of Americans are using

anywhere between three to five methods of news discovery, with an average statistic of 3.8

sources to discover news in one week (“How Americans Get Their News”, 2014). TV news is

still the most widely-used platform, with 57% of American adults often obtaining their news

there (Mitchell et al., 2016). Although this may be true, TV only comprises one of those sources

that over half of Americans use on a daily basis to obtain their news. Other popular sources for
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE 2

finding news are still newspaper and radio, but a newer addition, and the leading contender

among younger demographics, is the internet (Mitchell et al., 2016). The driving force behind the

internet-based news discovery is the presence and usage of social media.

The reach of social media is no secret; as of 2011, Facebook was the second-most visited

online site, outdone only by Google in world and United States rankings (Zúñiga et al., 2012). In

a world shifting toward online sharing, there are increased apprehensions among the older

generations about the future of news, which go hand-in-hand with generally increased

assumptions that millennials engage with less news than their elders do; these concerns,

however, are directly contradicted by research (Circonciso, 2016). Much of the unease regarding

a decrease in news consumption is a result of data which shows that adults between the ages of

18 and 34, commonly referred to as millennials, are not visiting news sites, reading print

newspapers, or watching television news in mass quantities (“How Millennials Get News”,

2015). Furthermore, as of 2016, receiving news from print newspapers had fallen 7%, from 27%

to just two of every ten Americans (Mitchell et al., 2016). Only 5% of millennials often get news

from print news sources, compared to almost half of those who are 65 and older (Mitchell et al.,

2016). One of the most pronounced differences is between those that prefer mobile devices for

digital news, at a striking 70% of millennials compared to just 16% of those over 65 years old

(Mitchell et al., 2016). Again, although over half of U.S. adults often get news from TV, there is

a key difference between the 72% of those between the ages of 50 and 64 who claim to often get

news from TV, and the 85% of those older than 65 who often get TV-based news, in comparison

to the only 27% of adults between the ages of 18 to 29 who often get their news on TV (“How

Americans Get Their News”, 2014). Researchers have found, therefore, that the decrease is not
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in news consumption, just in the use of the aforementioned traditional methods to stay informed;

the world is moving online, and millennials and their news are moving with it.

Taking a look at Figure 1, the trend seems to show that the older a recipient of news is,

the more likely they are to rely on traditional news sources, as compared to those that grew up

with the internet; television is still the primary source of news for 51% of people over the age of

55 (Dunn, 2017). In comparison, digital outlets serve as the primary news source for the majority

of people under 35, with 64% of those respondents being between the ages of 18 and 24 (Dunn,

2017). Traditional news media is still a key source of news for Americans as a whole. As

evidenced by the fact that those that use multiple internet-enabled devices are not necessarily less

likely to use print publications for finding their news (“How Americans Get Their News”, 2014).

However, the figure and trends clearly demonstrate the decline in the use of newer news sources

among the older generations, and the inclination toward digital media-based news in younger age

groups.

Figure 1: Main Source of News by Age Group in Q1 in 2017 (Dunn, 2017).


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In fact, considering this in partnership with the fact that younger people spend significant

time using digital media, the 2010 Pew report says that millennials are on track to become the

most educated generation in history (Circonciso, 2016). While other factors may play into their

education, news exposure and access is a key factor; 69% of millennials get news at least once a

day, 45% regularly follow five or more “hard news” topics, and 85% say that keeping up with

the news is at least somewhat important to them (“How Millennials Get News”, 2015). In

general, hard news refers to serious news regarding politics, foreign affairs, etc., in comparison

to routine news like human interest stories. Despite general public opinion, then, almost half of

all millennials are following multiple news stories on a daily basis. Plus, with almost seven of

every ten millennials consuming at least one news story every day it is hard to ignore the

attention news can garner by being present on social media, particularly among the younger

generation.

Though almost all social media sites are still actively used, not all sites compete for news

viewers’ time equally. Facebook is the news powerhouse among the social media sites, with 64%

of U.S. adults using the site, and half of those users obtaining news there; which means

approximately 30% of the U.S. adult population is getting at least some news from Facebook

(Anderson & Caumont, 2014). Perhaps surprisingly, YouTube is the next biggest social news

site; around half of Americans are users, and a fifth of them get news from it, translating to 10%

of the American population (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). Twitter is about equal to this, since

about 8% of Americans say they receive news there, with 16% of the population as users, and

half of those falling into the news recipient category (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). Reddit is an

outlier in this data set, since despite only reaching 3% of the U.S. population, over 62% of those

users have received news from the site (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). These data refer to
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Americans in general, though. Research has found that the numbers are slightly different among

the millennial population. Despite less usage among millennials, Facebook is still the leader, but

the percentage is much higher, with 88% of millennials getting at least some news there (“How

Millennials Get News”, 2015). Closely followed by YouTube as the runner up, also with a

significantly higher percentage of 83% of millennials receiving news there (“How Millennials

Get News”, 2015). Twitter is far more notable than a mere 8% when it comes to the millennial

category, with fully one third of millennials obtaining news from the site (“How Millennials Get

News”, 2015).

No matter which social media site prevails as the powerhouse over time, the usage of

social media to participate in news is comparable across all sites. According to the research of

“Katz and Gurevitch’s (1974) classic typology, individuals use media for surveillance, personal

identity construction, social relationships, and entertainment”; news, of course, can fulfill

multiple of these requirements (Zúñiga et al., 2012). Naturally, then, it makes sense that two

thirds of respondents to a survey of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 taken by the Media

Insight Project from the Associated Press in 2015 said they consume their news regularly via an

online medium (Irvine, 2016). If news recipients can use those stories to survey, construct their

personal identity, entertain themselves, and form social relationships with others who are

discussing the news, it would be clear that younger generations who are already frequently

online (various sources estimate anywhere from 9 to 18 hours a day) would engage in news

stories as part of their normal feeds for all of these reasons. As the surveillance, personal identity

construction, entertainment, and relationship formations vary cross-generationally, so does

participation in or actions with online news. Younger millennials do not seek their news from a

single source, but instead tend to be impelled by the topic and let news find them, in comparison
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to older millennials, who more actively seek news (Circonciso, 2016). This ties back to the idea

that the collaboration of social media and news highly encourages millennial awareness of

current events; they receive news passively while online that they may never have sought out. A

total of 60% of online news intake is passive, where the user comes across the news while

scrolling or browsing rather than having gone in search of it (Irvine, 2016). Considering young

adults as a whole, data shows that they do tend to get their harder news from more traditional

news sites, and lifestyle news from social networks (Irvine, 2016). This illustrates the notion that

younger millennials more often passively receive news than they do go in search of it.

III. Citizen Journalism and the Social Spread of News

With that in mind, 40% of news is actively sought; consumers intentionally search and

decide which stories are trustworthy (“How Millennials Get News”, 2015). Interestingly, when it

comes to loyalty to sources and trust in news organizations’ information, and discussion of news

with others, there are no key differences between the millennial age group in comparison to those

older than 50; the only key difference lies in the preference for certain platforms or outlets

(Mitchell et al., 2016). The millennial social media users often decide on credibility and quality

by using a search engine to follow up with what they read on Facebook, in order to gain second

opinions and consult multiple sources (“How Millennials Get News”, 2015). Once they have

decided which stories they favor, they may then continue to participate by “posting news stories,

commenting on them, liking or favoriting them, and forwarding them to others.” (“How

Millennials Get News”, 2015). This act of personally sharing the news is sometimes viewed as

practical, in that millennials don’t just see themselves as news consumers, but also as

newsmakers or citizen journalists (Circonciso, 2016). In fact, as depicted in figure 2, in a phone

survey in 2014, half of social network users have reposted news stories, images, or videos, and
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46% of users have participated in discussion of a news event or issue (Anderson & Caumont,

2014). Additionally, 14% of social media users have posted original photography of news events

to their social network, and 12% have posted videos (Anderson & Caumont, 2014).

Figure 2. Percent of social media users who have done each activity, according to a 2014
survey (Anderson & Caumont, 2014).

The rise of original content surrounding news events on social media shows the climbing rate

of citizen journalism, where anyone and everyone has the right to reveal and discuss news events

as they occur. Although many citizens rely on professional journalists and traditional news

agencies to fact-check or provide background information for stories, with information available

online 24/7 and many diverse opinions on the internet, citizen journalists are becoming more and

more necessary each day (Circonciso, 2016). The question remains unresolved on who is

responsible for ethical maintenance on social media-based citizen journalism, but in the

meantime, citizens share their viewpoints by reposting what they see in their feeds, or creating

original content (Circonciso, 2016).

In terms of reposting, and the half of social media users that do so, there are clear

characteristics of a story that will lead to it being shared more frequently. Stories tend to be
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shared more often if they are more positive, more informational, more trustworthy, or more

controversial (Kümpel et al., 2015). These, as discussed later on, are slightly different than the

characteristics of the stories that gain traction in offline news media. A significant number of

Americans have a preferred source depending on the type of news they are seeking, with only

18% of news consumers not mentioning a specific reporting source when asked where they go

for any given subject of news (“How Americans Get Their News”, 2014). Research seems to

show that stories are also more likely to be shared when the recipient of a story sees an opinion

leader interact with it before they do; in fact, some scholars believe that much negative news

could be stopped from spreading if opinion leaders were addressed beforehand (Wadbring &

Ödmark, 2016). An opinion leader is someone that influences how others see or view a certain

topic, because of the trust that they have earned in some way from their followers. For example,

among politically engaged social media users, a post from their local congressman would

probably influence their opinion more than that of a local artist.

Though the means are changing for spreading the messages, traditional news organizations

may still be news opinion leaders, even on social media. A survey was conducted online in

March 2018 via Survey Monkey, with results taken from 100 respondents between the ages of 18

and 54, the survey will be referenced throughout, as it included a variety of questions pertaining

to the emphasized topics in this essay. In this survey, 63% of the respondents said they feel that

news organizations that they follow on Twitter or like on Facebook are one of the ways they see

the most news-related information on their feeds. In the same survey, 61% of respondents said

that they feel peers that they follow or are friends with are an important method of their

discovery of news. Their responses are commonplace among many Americans, of whom 63%

“say family and friends are an important way they get news, whether online or offline” (Mitchell
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et al., 2016). Though it is rather early to determine the typical trends of what makes someone a

digital opinion leader, they tend to be younger, information seekers, more highly educated,

technologically advanced, interested in and involved with society and friends, and they tend to

have a positive attitude toward change (Wadbring & Ödmark, 2016). These traits, then, lead

them to gaining a large follower count, or a loyal follower count, that believes in the messages

that the opinion leaders share and publicize.

Additionally, “¾ of [opinion leaders] use social media several days a week, compared to only

1/3 of the majority who would not be considered opinion leaders” (Wadbring & Ödmark, 2016).

Much research suggests that, as previously indicated, influencers or opinion leaders within a

topic or category of news are key to how news continues to spread (Kümpel et al., 2015). Even

though there are more recipients of news than there are seekers, the data is still clear that by

following the opinion leaders, users will discover news whether intentionally or not. In fact, two-

fifths of social network users said that their news comes from the people that they follow on

services like Facebook, compared to a fifth that get news from news organizations or individual

journalists they follow (Hermida et al., 2012). Though most online news site visitors still arrive

directly or via search engine, social media referrals via opinion leaders or peers have transformed

into an essential tool in the spread of news (Kümpel et al., 2015). Opinion leaders that interact

with socially-networked news stories, therefore, impact the circulation of that news. Though

social interaction, such as listening to the opinions of those whom one admires, has always

altered the dissemination and spread of news, social media are becoming key players in the way

people experience their news; “networked media technologies are extending the ability of users

to create and receive personalized news streams” (Hermida et al., 2012).


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Although 88% of millennials, in a survey of over 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and

34, do regularly receive news on Facebook, only 47% of the participants said that getting news is

a motivation for using Facebook (“How Millennials Get News”, 2015). The other 53%, then,

seek their news via other media; 40% of millennials pay for a news app of some kind, or have a

digital subscription to news through a source that specializes in news summarization (Circonciso,

2016). Though 53% of American adults subscribe to news in some variation, the younger

population within this statistic are motivated to subscribe to news in order to support the news

organization’s mission (“Paying for news”, 2017). Plus, two-thirds of those ages 18-34 that

subscribe to news in some form said that, through use of Facebook several times a day, they

discovered a different or third-party news platform that they later decided to pay for (“Paying for

news”, 2017). One other key reason that people choose to pay for a news publication is due to a

specific topic that the news organization often covers or specializes in (“Paying for news”,

2017). While news subscription providers may be motivated to share certain articles over others

due to third party sponsorship or subscriber preferences, news on social media or other free news

sites spread differently. Their traction is impacted by contextual traits about about the news

articles, and various motivations of followers. Research suggests that where an article is placed

on a page may change the number of shares it gets, and that during times of social or political

crises articles related to the subject see an increase in the number of shares (Kümpel et al., 2015).

Due to millennials’ exceeding familiarity with online media, simplistic characteristics like

placements on a site are key ways through which articles cause themselves to stand out.

Additionally, millennials’ online expertise causes them to expect news to be catered to

current trends, as well as their personal interests, likes, and dislikes (Circonciso, 2016). This

presence of digital nativity, or the idea that the millennial generation grew up with the internet
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and social media, thus making it natural to them, significantly alters their online habits in

comparison to other generations (Circonciso, 2016). In her research on how millennials get news,

Circonciso elaborates on these ideas, and says that millennials tend to not directly consume news

in discrete or individual sessions or by going to news providers, but “instead, news and

information are woven into an often continuous but mindful way that millennials connect to the

world generally, which mixes news with social connection, problem solving, social action, and

entertainment” (Circonciso, 2016). Her research, taken from the Media Insight Project, could

suggest a future trend of news consumption wherein it becomes more of an integrated part of

daily life, and less of an outside entity which one must seek.

While the trend of social media users finding news as part of their feeds on a seemingly

everyday basis increases, it could still be the case that those people are not actually consuming as

much news as those who arrive directly; users that find their news through Facebook spend less

time reading the content and consume less pages than direct-access recipients (Anderson &

Caumont, 2014). This could be due to the fact that on Facebook, or other social media platforms,

seeing any news beyond the headline requires redirecting to a third party site. Fully 30% of the

people who said they recently followed breaking news said that they do not go in depth beyond

the headline (“How Americans Get Their News”, 2014). Contrary to what may be expected,

younger adults are more likely to remember looking for further information on breaking news

than are older adults, where older adults are more likely to say they generally keep up with news

(“How Americans Get Their News”, 2014). Elaborating on this idea, and illustrated in Figure 3,

“visitors who go to a news media website directly spend roughly three times as long as those

who wind up there through search or Facebook, and they view roughly five times as many pages

per month.” (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). This data does not take into account, though, that
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people who read a headline on Facebook may have then followed up with direct access to a site

in order to obtain more information about the event, which, as previously mentioned, they often

do. This could also account for the time spent on directly accessed news sites, as millennials or

others further discover news about a story that caught their attention on social media.

Figure 3: Average Monthly Referral Traffic to News Sites, based on data taken by the Pew
Research Center (Anderson & Caumont, 2014).

Regardless of the impact of time spent on the platform, as users shift toward social media to

gain their news updates, the inherent differences between their traditional news sources and

social media will cause a disconnect in the set of news stories they receive via each medium,

based on current trends. As previously mentioned, the news that gets shared more on social

media tends to be more positive and/or more controversial, in comparison to offline news, which

tends to be more negative (Wadbring & Ödmark, 2016). Another key feature of social media

news in comparison to offline, more traditional, news is that it allows more competition. Smaller

companies can gain traction on their stories through shares or likes with no paid placement,

resulting in traditional news leaders not necessarily being the same producers as social media
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news leaders (Bandari et al., 2012). This can allow equal access to various opinions, rather than

simply the opinion with the biggest budget, as is the case with offline news.

In addition to being liked and shared, popularity of news stories across social media may also

be topic-driven. As shown in Figure 4, Facebook users most often see entertainment news, or

news about people and events in their own community (Anderson & Caumont, 2014).

Comparatively, Facebook users said they least often see science and technology news, or

business news (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). It may be worth keeping in mind, though, that this

could be seen as equivalent to reading a newspaper, where science and business each have their

own, smaller, section of the paper, and the front page headlines are usually driven by

entertainment value.

Figure 4: Kinds of News on Facebook (Anderson & Caumont, 2014).


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Although entertainment is the clear leader of news topics found on Facebook, the Associated

Press institute, in their research on How Millennials Get News, describes the fact that millennials

still receive other various types of news:

Virtually all Millennials, for instance, regularly consume a mix of hard news, lifestyle news,
and practical “news you can use,” the study finds. Millennials are more likely to report
following politics, crime, technology, their local community, and social issues than report
following popup culture and celebrities, or style and fashion (2015).

Even so, it seems that that millennials’ tendency to follow multiple topics across multiple

platforms is not yet representative of the majority of social media news-seekers. In the

aforementioned Carthage survey of 100 people taken in 2018 from various age groups and

countries, there was a significant difference in popularity of the types of news that people said

they are more likely to share than others. A full 78% of respondents said they would share news

they are passionate about, 64% said they would repost news relating to a local event, and 59%

said they would repost news related to their career or projected career. On the other hand, only

nine respondents said they would be likely to share news that contradicts their personal opinions

or values, and only 26% of participants said they would share entertainment news. Some

respondents commented that they only share news stories that are not controversial, since they

disagree with public sharing of controversial or unpopular opinions.

With 73% of Facebook users total regularly consuming entertainment news, that is, by

far, Facebook’s leading type of news; Twitter, however, serves a core function of distribution of

news as it breaks (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). This difference is likely due to the mechanics

behind the site. Twitter’s algorithm makes their feed chronological, in comparison to Facebook

which caters to one’s preferred content, and the retweet mechanism allows an easy and public

redistribution of information, all of which is contained in minimal characters (Sharma, 2017).

With the chronologically-ordered short tweets, breaking news comes in in easily understandable,
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paraphrased descriptions, in a public forum (Sharma, 2017). Twitter largely overtakes Facebook

in the breaking news category, with a mere 28% of Facebook users keeping up with a developing

news story via the site, and less than half of that would follow breaking news by turning to

Facebook as their primary source (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). Whatever the platform, people

are consciously selecting specific forms of social media through which to obtain their news,

based on various topics or ideologies.

Topics aside, the ability of the social media platforms to reach a significant number of

people does result in atypical consumers of news, especially with the help of the two-way

communication that social media allows (Stassen, 2011). This means that, rather than simply

mass communicating information, with no feedback available, publishing the information on

social media allows for transactional communication, and discourse over the matter.

Transactional commentary and sharing of news could be beneficial or harmful, depending on the

additional commentary shared with the article. Nonetheless, social media’s allowance of

conversations surrounding the news is transforming into a key factor in the sharing of and

reflection on news. Researcher Stassen, who looks at social media in terms of its value to

journalism, even goes so far as to say that “the old media model is smashed”, as she believes in

the future of social media as a valid and primary source for news (Stassen, 2011). It would also

be feasible to suggest that the two-way communication facilitation of social media sites does not

just increase “the acquisition of information, but also the discussion of its importance and

relevance with other members of a particular individual’s social network”, which can allow users

to discuss, elaborate on, further reflect on, or understand their news in a public forum (Zúñiga et

al., 2012). In the Carthage College 2018 survey of participants 18-53, most of whom were

college students, 38% of them said that they occasionally or often react to or comment on posts
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surrounding news events that contradict their personal opinions, and 80% of them said they

occasionally or often like or comment on posts surrounding news events that agree with their

personal opinions. Although this may be true, people still overwhelmingly get news from each

other in person or over the phone; on average, people who received news online then spoke

about it with someone else 30% of the time, which was more frequently than they then posted

about it on social media (Mitchell et al., 2016). However, there re still those that turn to social

media to share a news story. Additionally, despite the fact that most of the information that is

exchanged on social media is related to entertainment, as it is on TV, as social networks and

news are incorporated into daily life for more people, the content available on those social

networks inherently diversifies with the increased number of contributors (Zúñiga et al., 2012).

IV. Personalized News Streams

In the eyes of those that are opposed to the idea of using social media to obtain news, the

commentary and sharing is actually one key cause of their opposition. Many of these individuals

feel that way because of the aforementioned “personalized news streams” that users have the

ability to create on these platforms. The concern with this stems from users’ potential to, even if

accidentally, create a news feed that lends itself to some degree of confirmation bias, wherein

one seeks out information that agrees with their pre-existing opinions or beliefs. However, in the

previously mentioned survey of 100 people, 83% of them said that they never or only

occasionally unfollow or hide information from people that regularly post opinionated news that

is different from their own opinions, such as someone that believed strongly in gun control

muting or unfollowing someone that regularly posts or shares news about their second

amendment rights. This would be a very easy way to potentially avoid being presented with

diverse opinions, but 70% of millennials say that their social media feeds are a fairly even mix of
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opinions both similar to and different from their own, and another 16% of respondents say that

their feeds contain views that are mostly different than their personal perspectives (“How

Millennials Get News”, 2015). Additionally, 73% of those who are exposed to viewpoints other

than their own claim they investigate others’ opinions “at least some of the time”, with a quarter

of them saying they often do (“How Millennials Get News”, 2015). That knowledge, paired with

the fact that 86% of millennials see diverse opinions through social media, shows that, despite

concerns of creating bias, that as social media grows, so does diverse news awareness.

Furthermore, the original claim of the ability to create personalized streams being a reason to use

traditional sources rather than social media in order to obtain news may be unfounded. It seems

that, even in traditional news such as TV and newspaper, there are clear front runners for each

political ideology. Those who self-identify as more liberal are far more likely to turn to news

from CNN, PBS, or the BBC than are those who self-identify as conservative, who prefer to

listen to and trust news from Fox (Mitchell et al., 2014). Interestingly, the more conservative the

survey respondent, the less news sources they deemed trustworthy; Fox news was the only

traditional news source that a majority of conservative respondents said they turn to for

trustworthy news (Mitchell et al., 2014). Though social media news may not result in more trust

in the diverse opinions and viewpoints, it certainly results in more exposure to others’ opinions

than would relying on a single traditional news source.

V. The Offline Effect of Social News

The shift away from single-view traditional news toward the more eclectic news that

social media provides does come with a task for the news organizations, and for the platforms on

which they share their information. Due to this, many social media platforms and news

organizations have already adapted to the modern methods involved with news sharing, in light
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE 18

of the shift among user preferences for receiving news (Stassen, 2011). This shift is exemplified

by the fact that news organizations that have caught onto the trend are hastily making their way

to social media as a method of distribution (Hermida et al., 2012). Additionally, a visit to any

online source for news shows a myriad of buttons that allow you to share the story to your own

social media platforms, thus encouraging citizen journalism ideology to help with spreading a

story. This may be the new normal as even the current president takes to Twitter multiple times a

day to share significant personal and government news, rather than waiting for the break of a

press release. Additionally, the line between watching and reading news is becoming less

distinct, as frequency, available space, and possibility for moving images all increases with the

capability to post news stories online and on social media (Wadbring & Ödmark, 2016).

Essentially, researchers conclude, the common meaning of news is changing (Wadbring &

Ödmark, 2016).

Aside from the idea of the new normal, and the aforementioned side effects of viewer

engagement shifting to social media, there are also many social or psychological effects of this

shift. Pew research suggests that the psychology of news engagement is shifting, as 20% of

Americans have changed their views on an issue because of something they’ve seen in a news

story or news discussion on social media (Circonciso, 2016). Furthermore, the same article

describes the shift that seems to be prompting more activism and participation among the

millennials that regularly experience news in their social media feeds, and thus, as part of their

daily life:

When millennials look for news they do so actively or purposefully. In addition to


informing themselves about issues, they share information among their networks, prompt
petitions, and look for ways to solve problems. They have changed the way we solve
issues but not just by relying on big institutions. The rise of digital and crowd funding
platforms – digital activism – is changing society, helping to mobilize thousands of
supporters to a diverse range of causes (Circonciso, 2016).
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE 19

The mobilized supporters are not just a passing trend, studies show that patterns of media use

intended to acquire information or build community (e.g. news on social media) are positively

correlated with civic participation (Zúñiga et al., 2012). There are also many pages or groups that

people may join in order to hear about ways to be more actively involved, with the additional

capability to create Facebook events and invite specific people that can then share it with their

own networks. A third of respondents to the Carthage College 2018 survey of 100 people said

that they had been to a protest, town hall, or other politically-oriented event that they heard about

exclusively through social media. Obviously, social media is evolving into a news media tool,

through which organizations can interact and communicate with their audiences (Stassen, 2011).

The potential of that interaction alone could facilitate entirely new demographics’ abilities to

stand up for what they believe in. Young people, minorities/non-whites, and people of lower

socioeconomic status will be more inclined to use social media to obtain their news in order to

feel they have a voice in their typically underrepresented demographic; this shift could lead to a

healthier democracy as typically politically-distant citizens are able to become more engaged

with current events (Zúñiga et al., 2012).

VI. Conclusion and Future Research

With 45% of millennials regularly keeping up with five or more “hard news” topics, 88%

of millennials getting news from Facebook, citizen journalists presenting diverse viewpoints on

stories, unpaid digital opinion leaders forging new trends, and young adults consistently

following up on research for a breaking story, the overall growth of social media platforms

clearly encourages news consumption in a younger market, or encourages news participation

among atypical audiences. Future research would be required to determine the longitudinal

effects on the political participation in comparison to the types of news that people interact with,
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE 20

or to study the idea that social media-based news feeds are more diversified than single-source

traditional news. Regardless, the minimal information that exists on the shift toward use of social

media to discover news still reveals the key information discussed in this paper, such as the

social and psychological impact. The shift is far from over, and news media will continue to

change as the two entities merge together to create an accessible and diverse network of news

content.
Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NEWS SOURCE

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