NDM 17

Sky Views: Social media helps good journalism- SKY NEWS

The article, is more of a series of comment pieces by Sky News editors and correspondents. This particular one was by an editor who was questioning whether social media is a sought of good for journalism today rather than taking away from traditional journalism i.e Newspapers.The person states how at an event the found himself and others debating on the topic of journalism, referencing Twitter and Facebook as a hub of fake accounts and news with some being shocked of the ability for those to create accounts to promote certain views to make their audiences think a certain due to targeted information at them from countless amounts of data they hold. There is even the huge volume of fake traffic being put out by Russian sources to disrupt politics in the west. 

• In 2016 a few anti-Islamic posts on Facebook send out by Russians but purporting to be from "the heart of Texas" managed to stir up a confrontation on the streets of Houston.

Veteran New York Times journalist Stephen Erlanger, commented that there is  pressure to provide clickbait, which meant there were fewer resources to check stories and that even his paper, The Grey Lady, now put out trivial stories to attract readers.

• Fearful of fake news and its consequences, people are prepared to pay for reliable and well-presented information.

This comment by the editor is agreeable, to an extent, as I think the thought of fake news and false allegations is known to many and a worry it is still shown from the way false news can be spread that many can still be led on or believe in fake news. Even other countries are known to have paid people to keep bots and create 'opinion-keepers' to be able to put out their thoughts and political views, which most often is run in the time of elections. Paywalls have been made by some newspapers to show to people their reliability and want for genuine 'good news' such as The New York TImes newspaper which advertises it self as something of a luxury to the people who access gain a lot of revenue showing how by creating something to pay for or advertiisng it as a necessity will allow those to buy it.