Are We the Best Informed Citizens in History?

Extract

[...] Social media allow all the members to be content viewers, but also creators of content like news content without any fact checking from the media. So, everybody can see fake news very easily on his feed thanks to the algorithms, but according to the “American Press Institute,” only 15 percent of adults in the United States who get news through social media say they have high levels of trust in the information they get from that means of discovery.So, we can therefore admit that it's very paradoxical, because social media is the media that the most use, but it's the one that is the least raw because it's the one where there is the most fake news.Third and Last DocumentFinally, the last document that I want to show you is called “News Hole” and it's a press cartoon by Rob Rogers, made the 9 December 2016. [...]

[...] Are We the Best-Informed Citizens in History? Hey everyone,Today, I will try to answer the question “Are we the best-informed citizens in history?” with documents from all around the world, because nowadays, we are in a networked society thanks to globalization.We all know that, in the last two decades, a lot of new media appeared, and especially since the outbreak of the Internet. All around the world, it becomes easier and easier to go to the Internet, where there is information. [...]

[...] This graph tends to show that we use more and more the smartphone for news since 2013. Indeed, the main means of access to information is the mobile which is accessible at any time of the day and easily.We also know that the majority of the news are free thanks to ads on the Internet, so it's even easier. With all this information, we could say that we are the best-informed citizens, but in reality, it is not so true.Second DocumentSo, the second document that I want to show you is this one, which also comes from the Reuters Institute. [...]

[...] Fake news spread six times faster than the truth and companies like Facebook will do nothing to stop this misleading information because they prefer the profit that generates fake news over safety.So, to conclude, I think in an era of globalization, all of us can be the best-informed citizens with the latest news on our phones which are at hand at all times, but only if we check, diversify and choose unpolitical sources to be more open-minded and to not fall in an echo chamber. The best option on our phones is to listen to podcasts or read articles from apps like the Reuters, and not just the headlines which often extrapolate. I think that we can all continue to follow the news on social media, but only by following checked accounts that are not biased and by tricking the algorithms sometimes to change our minds. [...]