The Future of News

One important current mass media issue that is being talked about is the future of news. As this just so happens to be my final topic, I have an interest in the subject. Something that I have noticed through my research is the reoccurring trend that people are getting their news more and more from social media. In fact, according to Pew Research, about half of adults who are on Facebook use it for news. There's a cool graph on the page that shows the different social media sites that people are using and the percentage of them who are using it for news as well. It might actually be the same graph that Professor Robinson showed us in class the other day, but, hey, that just makes it all the more valid, right? 

Anyway, I think it's very interesting--but not surprising--that this seems to be the path that news is going down now. I think it has a lot to do with convenience; if you're browsing social media and news pieces show up on your feed, it's that much easier to click on the link instead of searching it out. You have your information right there. It may also have to do with the "filter bubble". If Facebook knows what your preferences are based on your past behavior, your news feed will probably have more items that are of your interest than not. This means that you're all the more likely to click on those news links. Even though this is my prediction of where the majority of news will be in the future, I fully believe that other sources will not die out. There are always going to be those more traditional people that like their news the way it used to be: in print.