1| Defining News

 

News not only surrounds our everyday lives but is our everyday lives. If you are anything like me, from the moment you wake up you immediately get on your phone and begin searching for anything. Whether that be new hot gossip trending on social media, world news, a celebrity passing, or hometown news reports. Every social media app, website, or simply driving down the interstate brings you some form of news. 

According to Britannica Dictionary the definition of news is "New information or a report about something that has happened recently, with information that is reported in a newspaper, magazine, television news program, and etc."

Now this is what I believe is the ironic thing on what we consider "news." Young adults that are my age, do not consider what is written into our local newspapers "news" because it doesn't catch our attention. We consider what we read on social media to be our gospel, the tried-and-true media. But on the other hand, people that are my grandparents age who are not involved in social media rely on what is in the newspaper as their main source of newsworthy information. But although these two ideas are completely different, they are both news. One is a physical copy, and one if you read it, you immediately go to a search engine to see if the information is true or false. 

My goal with this post is to explain to both sides of the digital, versus non digital news that either way, news is everywhere around us at all times a day. This is explained through the Man, bites Dog analogy, which basically explains that news is a departure from the ordinary. Life isn't perfect, so the news can't be either. 

Although news can be consumed through many outlets, there is still the major problem at hand of determining what is real news and what is fake news. But the simplest way to figure out if what you just read is true or what your reading is misinformation; is to make sure the resources you got it from are creditable and trustworthy. The digital age allows the spread of information so much quicker, and misinformation is a part of the negative on that positive in our society. According to Science News Today, "These false or misleading's claims can distort public understanding, fuel social and political polarization, and even threaten democratic processes."

News will always be involved and important in our lives. With the increase in involvement with social media and news outlets it is such an important tool, that we have to use with discretion, with what can be created with false information and news. The people of my age demographic need to truly understand the value of news, and credible information in our society. As a whole news connects people from all over the world through different languages and forms of how we consume it, creating a whole unit of informed and involved.