“Use how well they caught people’s needs.
“Use social media for good and lift others up, not tear them down. Stay on the high road. Keep your peace.
“? Germany Kent Social engagement of thecitizens – one of the fundamental components of the successful solution ofeconomic, political, and social problems at this stage of development of modernsociety. A rapid increase of printed media, television, and Internet, in everydaylife is an eloquent confirmation to the fact that the media plays a major rolein the lives of ordinary people as well as all aspects of public life. SocialMedia makes the necessary information possible to convey in the most remotecorners of our immense world in the shortest terms. It is a powerful force,which affects the consciousness, feelings, and emotions of millions of peopleall over the world. It informs about the most relevant information no matter ifyou live in the capital cities or in the remote corners of the globe. The efficiency of SocialMedia in society directly depends on how well they caught people’s needs.
Atthe same time, it is always extremely important to keep a finger on the pulseof the events that are taking place in the world and to be able to choose onlythose, which will certainly be interesting to your audience. Thus, it ispossible to draw a conclusion that the main factor that forms the systems ofthe public relations is society. Therefore, requirements, interests, andmotives of the target audience guide media. Does this mean that we dolive in the age of stupid? Alternatively, are we in charge what kind ofinformation influences us? Are Millennials aka the digital generation lesssensible to Media influence? There are several issues, which I would like todiscuss below: How do fake news onSocial Media make people believe nonsense, elect presidents, and even take outguns? Google and Facebookbegan the official fight against lies and falsification online. Recentpresidential elections in USA showed how information widespread in socialnetworks and influences public opinion. Craig Silverman, the editor-in-chief ofthe Canadian edition of the news BuzzFeedNews has conducted a research onFacebook, where he decided to sort the loudest messages about the Americanelections. Silverman analyzed the development and distribution of 20 mostunusual and false reports as well as 20 loud news. Among false news weremessages that the Pope Francis blessed Trump to a presidential position, aboutHillary Clinton selling weapons to ISIS, about Clinton’s correspondence withISIS, about Clinton’s dismissal from the her position in state, and aboutmysterious “suicide” of the FBI agent suspected of the organizationof leakage.
The Power of Repost Over the eight months ofresearches (starting in February and lasting until November 2016), thedistribution of news changed places. If in the beginning the quantity ofreposts of false news coming from doubtful resources was slightly less thanthree million, by November this figure grew three times and reached nearly ninemillions. To the contrary, citing the real news on Facebook (or Fakebook?) fromthe large websites decreased from twelve million, to seven. The similaranalysis became possible, due to the programs developed by Silverman.”Evergent” technologies have algorithms that check information for reliability,citation and the primary sources.
Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction to such researchwas ambiguous: he mentioned the “insanity” of the idea about theinfluence of Facebook on the American elections. He also said that 99% ofcontent in Facebook is original. However, a few weeks ago he reported that Facebookhas developed a program to fight against unreliable information. Perhaps hisopinion changed after the algorithm of Facebook “buried” the founder,having reported to the world about his death and causing a big resonance insociety. Mark Zuckerberg hasdefined the main rules of the “battle” against misinformation. For example, nowthe user can mark publications that he does not consider trustworthy. The morereports the publication will collect, the less often it will appear in the newsfeed. In addition, it will receive a mark reporting that the information isfalse.
In addition, Facebook will reconsider the advertising policy, whichoften leads to the fact that businesspersons throw the non-standard shockinginformation to attract the views. Google decided to reconsider advertisingpolicy of the company. Google came up with the black list of the websites,which have been caught spreading false news. Why do fakesproliferate? The internationalcompany Ipsos conducted sociological researches and revealed that 75% ofAmericans only read the headings of the articles; therefore, a bold and brightheading will be remembered better even if it is fake. Silvermen’s Evergentprogram showed that people read fakes a lot more than its contradictions.
Inaddition, the Canadian scientists from Mcgill University found out that peoplereact quicker to negative headings with such words as bomb, war, murder,terrorism, cancer, etc. All you need to do is to write a shocking heading. Itdoes not have to be supported with arguments or relevant facts to impress thereader and to make him fear or desire to share news and warn people in hissurroundings. After all, they know they can always write a contradiction andthat way, “restore” information justice.
Once it comes to the choice betweentwo information streams: the person is inclined to choose more memorable option– in this case, the contradiction as less shocking information, obviously losesin a fight for attention of the reader.This is a popularapproach at the pre-election and advertising companies used to blacken thecompetitor. The young people willnot understand There is a delusion thatthe representatives of new generation who grew up in the era of Facebook,YouTube, Twitter and other social networks have immunity to false news.However, this is not true because teenagers and young people are as susceptibleto lies on the Internet, as adults are. It has been proven by the group ofStanford scientists, by means of the experiment conducted in the Americanschools and colleges in 12 states.7 804 students enteredselection of an experiment and the experiment lasted one and a half years.
56tasks in which students were offered to distinguish between the real and thefalse news, to estimate information reliability of the websites, articles,messages on Facebook and Twitter, to distinguish a real person profile from therobot and to explain their answer. The conclusion drawn by scientists based ontests was unfavorable. Even though the youth was born in digital era and iscapable of switching from Facebook to Twitter in less than a second whileuploading a selfie to Instagram and messaging with friends, isn’t capable todistinguish between the truth and a lie in the attempt to estimate informationon social media. How do we fight the ageof Stupid? A public non-profitorganization Factcheck.
org shared the set of rules that will reduce the risk ofmisinformation if followed. For example, the organization advises to work withprimary sources or the authentic approved information databases when researching.The website of the database should not be limited to only one page and lackfeedback. Usually these short websites are created specifically for rumors andlies. In addition, the administration of Factcheck.org advises todisregard the news feed on our social network profiles as news sources. Thenewsfeed is formed by proceeding from preferences of the user to entertain him.
The reliability of such information is often questionable since the contenttries to correspond the outlook of the user.You should not be afraid of going deep into interesting topics and readingdifferent articles, news and reviews but you should definitely read more thanjust headings and use different information sources for comparison. This ruleis very important: a shouting heading does not express all essence of themessage.To sum up, I would liketo say that there can be many arguments, but the Social Media does influencepeople’s minds on daily bases. On one hand, I always used to think that my newsfeed is exactly what I would like it to see. Therefore, now I know that Ialmost never get the truthful, objective opinion since media does it best tocorrespond my outlook.
On the other hand, it is possible to find everything youare looking for since the Internet is the most flexible platform. It makessense to spend some extra time searching the original data, rather thantrashing yourself with multiple headings that are might lie. In the end, wetruly ended up living in the age of Stupid, however a little effort and thoughtwill help us take our generation on a completely new level.
