Traditional Media Lessons for Social Media Giants

Social media has become the conduit of mass consumed journalism, but it comes with a price tag.

If the first thing you do in the morning is to wake up and check Twitter for breaking news, then you’re not alone. Although you may not be aware that even those news stories are heavily curated in order to generate ad revenue. The lines between business and the newsroom have become increasingly blurred, and no thanks to the rise of social media.

This story is a warning sign for social media companies as they are quickly becoming the mecca for news. The decisions made by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram regarding the stories given feed time often disregard journalistic integrity.

The ones that are most likely to spread misinformation are the ones that generate the most discourse; therefore, amping up time spent on the site, and in turn creating more revenue.

In 2018, Facebook became the example of this, as Mark Zuckerburg publicly announced how user engagement was the top priority. Leaders of the integrity department presented solutions to stop the spread of misinformation, but they were declined, as doing so would not be fiscally beneficial.

I do ask you to retweet an article before even clicking on it, because you will be asked to consider reading the article before sharing. This is one of the many ways social media giants are attempting to curb the spread of violent or misleading content. The question remains, that even after reading it — what will you do with it?

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