With the rise of social media, information was able to spread faster and further than it ever has in the past. Often times, before a story even reaches the news, millions of people have already tweeted about it! "We are becoming our own editors and groundskeepers" (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2011). Unfortunately, similar to your modern-day high school, social media sites are ripe for spreading rumors. If I come across something on a social media site, I will always verify it from a reliable news source before I hold it to be 100% true. If social media sites have taught me one thing, however, it's that nothing is private these days. Once something reaches the web, it's no longer yours.
There are many pros and cons to this way of communication. We are able to communicate on a global scale anytime. Unlike older media sources, technology allows instantaneous interactions. I feel like it's slowly overcoming the world, though. People are constantly on their smartphones, even when out to dinner on a date. We prefer interacting with technology than with each other.
As Curtis (2012) states, "We trust the media as an authority for news, information, education, and entertainment. Considering that powerful influence, then, we should know how it really works." I'm hoping that throughout the course of this term, I am better able to understand how it works.
References
Curtis, A. R. (2012). Mass media influence on
society. University of North
Carolina at Pembroke. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from
http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/Courses/ResourcesForCourses/PDFs/Mass_Media_Influence_on_Society.pdf
Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2011). Blur: How to know what's true in the age of information overload. New York: Bloomsbury.
