The rise of social media has made it so that a lot of the news that we tend to rely on often comes from the social media platforms that we dedicate such large portions of our day to. A survey that was recently conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that when it comes to news regarding Covid vaccines and the like, about 48% of US adults get at least some form of news regarding the matter from various social media sites that they would use with varying levels of frequency.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that only around 6% of the adults that responded to this query said that they felt that the news that they got from this site was relevant enough to base any decisions on. Only about 33% of respondents said that social media was an important source of news, even though they also admitted that it was far from being the most important. What’s more is that 60% said that it is not an important source of news at all.
There is clearly a divide between how people perceive social media as a source of news and how they treat it as a news source in practice. For example, even though 60% of respondents said that social media was not an important source of news, around 53% admitted that they obtained some form of news from one of the ten social media platforms that had been listed in the survey on a more or less regular basis.
One thing that this could mean is that while people absorb a lot of news from social media, they probably take it with a grain of salt which his just how it should be. Social media has become rather notorious for turning into a pit where only fake news ends up being spread, and the manner in which algorithms that govern Facebook feeds and the like are created makes it so that fake news and misinformation is spread even further due to the reason that it tends to receive a lot of engagement with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Still, it is essential to note that the fact that people are getting news from anywhere at all is a heartening sign because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to find out more about where they can get vaccinated and the like. If social media platforms can find a way to curb fake news, things might just take a turn for the better.
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With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that only around 6% of the adults that responded to this query said that they felt that the news that they got from this site was relevant enough to base any decisions on. Only about 33% of respondents said that social media was an important source of news, even though they also admitted that it was far from being the most important. What’s more is that 60% said that it is not an important source of news at all.
There is clearly a divide between how people perceive social media as a source of news and how they treat it as a news source in practice. For example, even though 60% of respondents said that social media was not an important source of news, around 53% admitted that they obtained some form of news from one of the ten social media platforms that had been listed in the survey on a more or less regular basis.
One thing that this could mean is that while people absorb a lot of news from social media, they probably take it with a grain of salt which his just how it should be. Social media has become rather notorious for turning into a pit where only fake news ends up being spread, and the manner in which algorithms that govern Facebook feeds and the like are created makes it so that fake news and misinformation is spread even further due to the reason that it tends to receive a lot of engagement with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Still, it is essential to note that the fact that people are getting news from anywhere at all is a heartening sign because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to find out more about where they can get vaccinated and the like. If social media platforms can find a way to curb fake news, things might just take a turn for the better.
