How Will We Consume Our News? – PLSC 359: Global Governance

The statement that technology has changed over the last 5 years would be an understatement. Social media alone has gone from Facebook to Twitter to now Instagram and Snapchat being the reigning kings. When looking at the dissemination of information, news outlets are having a hard time keeping up. Traditional newspapers are failing and trying to create digital platforms to keep up with the change of times. Facebook now has trending topics and seems like it is angling to be the place where news breaks. Instagram is moving to an algorithm based feed as opposed to a chronological timeline. What does all this change mean for global governance? I think it largely determines how and when we receive our news.

With all of the big data about each of us out there, companies are catching up and catering the ads we receive and the posts we view to what they think we would like to see. I can’t help but wonder if news outlets will move to this formula. Will stories be posted chronologically or will you see stories that an algorithm determines? I think there’s a lot of value in staying chronological. I think being exposed to stories that you aren’t initially interested in helps you to form a more complete picture of global events. I think by unintentionally omitting certain world events from what we see inherently hurts our quest to learn. Half of the world events that occur might never be seen because they don’t generate enough interest to pop up in the algorithm feed. I think this would be a great disservice to viewers/readers and would create a huge knowledge gap for the public.

Kim says:

April 30, 2016 at 1:25 am

I think that our generation has become so dependent on the idea of fast that we forget how to be wise consumers of information. It has become so focused on the newest and the latest that reliability and fact-checking comes second. I agree that it would be interesting to see an algorithm to that caters to the reader but then that further limits our scope of what is happening around us.

I also think that though we may get a different perspective of a certain topic, the way we receive our news is through one conglomerate that tries to operate as unbiased sources. It is important to keep in mind that much like any business, the news will always put money first than integrity.

Rohan Dalal says:

April 30, 2016 at 3:28 am

I thought your point regarding data analysis and consumer manipulation holds importance with the current technological controversy. I think that there is a benefit and a weakness for technological advancements in regards to news sources. In that we benefit through receiving news that is most pertinent to our lives, centered on our interests. Yet we lose our privacy, in the process. The question is how great is the infringement of privacy from big companies?
In my opinion, we need to understand that the access of technology leads to greater networking, and in turn leads to a reduction in our private lives. Social media has depicted this fusion of public and private lives, and has shown that privacy is not paramount importance to many portions of the public.

Karen Yamasaki says:

April 30, 2016 at 9:52 am

I agree with you that people used to gain information through the TV, newspaper, or radio, but nowadays more people rely on Social Networking Service such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. But I also think that due to the growth of the internet, you can have access to multiple newspapers online. I have been away from my home country, but I still can know what is going on in my country thanks to the spread of the online newspapers. Also, if you hit like on pages that are run by newspapers on Facebook, you will see many new posts popping up on your home page every day. The news which are covered by those SNS might have different nature than the news which are covered by the TV, I think you can find a lot of positive aspects of the current tendency.