Is Social Media Replacing Journalism?

On October 27, 2022, the Pew Research Center published a study finding that Americans under 30 are becoming increasingly likely to trust social media as they are actual news outlets. 

While this study was conducted over a year ago, it remains relevant as social media continues overtaking other forms of informative communication. Day by day, traditional journalism is declining as an industry. On November 16, 2023, AP News published an article describing this plummet. The United States has lost one-third of its newspapers and two-thirds of its newspaper journalists since 2005. An average of two and a half newspapers closed each week in 2023 and at some point this year, about 3,000 newspapers will have closed over the course of two decades. A study conducted by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University found that about 204 counties in the United States are ‘news deserts,’ without any legitimate form of news publication. 228 other counties are at a high risk of this fate as well. Media outlets are also experiencing these difficulties, with major news organizations experiencing mass layoffs. It is easy to write these off as just numbers, but taking the time to think about not only the work that goes into honest journalism, but the importance it has to society makes these statistics much more alarming.

Many find that social media is now being used as an alternative to proper news reporting. Senior Kejli Bektic described, “Anyone can post on [social media] and sometimes it’s not always true what they say. Not knowing when something is credible or not and continuing to spread misinformation [can be dangerous].”

Bias in the presentation of news and even fabrication of it have been major concerns over the past few years, but social media inflames this problem even more. Social media cultivates conspiracy theories and fear-mongering. It is designed to not inform, but to engage and persuade, to get the reader riled up. In an increasingly polarized political landscape, social media appeals to what its viewers want to hear, not to what they need to hear. This leads to a distortion of how facts are presented to appeal to emotions, which can lead to the limitation of public awareness. This in turn leads to a breeding ground for political corruption and propaganda to be left unchecked.

“The danger of relying on social media for your news source is that it’s not always credible, and you may get the wrong information,” said junior Ella Rinken. “Because of this, you are going to spread fake news, and you might act differently depending on a false reality you believe.”

The convenience of social media is also an appeal. Why take the time to watch televised news, read a magazine or buy a newspaper when someone can instead just scroll through TikTok? Social media appeals to the need for instant gratification and information. It is not accurate to call journalism a dying industry, but instead, one that is fundamentally changing in how it is presented.

“Getting news off social media is usually biased [to] make you think a certain way,” stated senior Makenna Davis. “[Which] is why I actually deleted TikTok, because I used to get a lot of my news off of there and I just realized it was shaping the way I think about certain topics and [putting it] in a different light… a biased light.”

America needs journalists more than it needs influencers. Taking the time to fact-check what is being presented as information and supporting actual forms of news encourages legitimacy in what is being sold to the public as the truth. And without the truth being well, truthful—does it even exist?