Nowadays, news consumption is largely dominated by digital platforms, though traditional sources like television remain popular. For many, actively seeking for news has become rare and rather something that is purely incidental where news is encountered while using social media such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or other apps. The platforms that people get their information from range in various different forms, and have many different inconsistencies that leave confusion nationwide. For example, when there are many different sources covering the same topic but providing different information, it may leave many inconsistencies. The fragmentation of news gets lost within the different sources of media presented to us everyday.
In research conducted by the Pew Research Center, the article states that “A large majority of U.S. adults (86%) say they at least sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 56% who say they do so often.” Digital devices are the most common way that Americans get their news in the world today. However, there are still a majority of 64% who say they get their news from the television at least sometimes.
Watching the news is crucial in order to stay informed of local and global events. This empowers active citizenship and helps you, as a citizen, understand policy decisions and the accountability of our leaders. By engaging and being active within what is going on in the news, you are able to understand the official directives of the figures that hold office. However, social media may not always have accurate information as some of it can be misleading. This is because some platforms prioritize engagement over accuracy. It can also be because we allow our biases to interfere.
The news sources that we watch are also often reflective of our tendencies and political ideologies. The news sources that we choose to engage with and where we find our sources may be led by confirmation bias: a cognitive tendency to search for and interpret or favor information that confirms one’s pre-existing beliefs. With this, as viewers, we choose to ignore contradicting evidence subconsciously, thus proving why it is important to expand where we get our information from as news consumers. Today, many news sources are tailored to curate media that supports the political perspectives of their viewers. For example, Fox News is considered a right-leaning source as CNN is considered a left-leaning source.
Learning to balance news consumption is important. Gaining information from social media is a fast, effective, and easily accessible way to gather information. However, filtering through society’s biases, and our own biases, is important to how we gather news. This is also true within watching the news, reading the paper, or seeing an article online. Additionally, it is just as important to check your sources and expose yourself to many different references to gain a balance of insight.
