By Jill Baker, Co-editor in chief
280 characters on Twitter is not journalism. An aimlessly shared story on Facebook from News123.com is not journalism. An everyman writing about what he thought President Donald Trump meant during a speech is not journalism. And a site sponsored by the National Rifle Association writing about the March for Our Lives is not objectivity.
Journalists are relied upon at the same time as being disparaged for bringing the news to the people. Journalists are expected to report on what is happening but are discredited by fake news and nonobjective readers who prefer not to read all sides to a situation.
According to an August 2017 Pew Research Center study, two-thirds of Americans report that they get “at least some of their news on social media” with two-in-ten doing so often. With this and the world of fake news spraying across the internet, genuine journalism is undermined.
This does not make it irrelevant, on the contrary, journalism is what brings the truth to the forefront.
Quick statements on social media can be convenient and quick to process, but not always accurate. The ease of Twitter has diminished the power of the “Spotlight” teams with breaking news at our fingertips.
Consumers who don’t take a second look at the body of an article, just sharing a headline, add to the impact of fake news. This was especially prevalent during the 2016 presidential election.
With the combination of fake news articles and satirical articles mistaken as news, the political implications are dangerous. Dan Rather, lifelong journalist and previous anchor for CBS expressed the importance of heightened journalistic integrity especially around the election.
“As innovations and technology continues to transform society it is imperative that each of us has access to the facts surrounding the policies and events that shape our lives,” Rather said.
Journalism matters because history must be written down, it is important to know how society today felt about what happened, but it is more important for our future to know what actually happened.
In recent events, Facebook has been in hot water with its ongoing privacy scandal. Referring back to the Pew study, with 67 percent of the public getting their news from social media, added distrust impedes upon the public reliability on articles they see online.
Journalism is critical to the expansion of information and storytelling to the public. It is essentially relied upon and fake news is breaking down the power of the press. Until a new way of spreading reliable information is created, journalism will be essential and shape the way history is remembered.
The editorials of The Quill reflect the views of individual members of the editorial board. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire editorial board or of the university. The content of the Forum page is the responsibility of the editor in chief and the Forum editor
