Navigating “Fake News”

Posted on by dandross

“Fake news” is a term that has gained momentum in the past few years. It has become divisive and polarizing, but it is prominent in our world today. As “savvy consumers” we would like to believe that fake news is easy to spot, but sometimes it just isn’t. Anyone can be fooled.

Many fake news sites are for-profit. Fake news is often purposefully intended to be polarizing, often across partisan lines, driving up emotion and making people take those emotions over logic. Humans are extremely emotional creatures. For that reason, we’re pretty easy to fool. Additionally, fake news often looks legitimate, making it seem trustworthy. 

Older people are particularly susceptible to fake news. They grew up in the era of television news, which “had” to be trustworthy, because besides the radio, that was all there was. The news was the news and that was it. Younger people have had the opportunity to gain news from many different places, and as a result, they have had to- or should have had to- become more skeptical. According to NPR this might not really be the case, though- students have trouble discerning real from fake news as well, and part of that might be shortened attention spans. Most people do not have the time nor the patience to fact-check their “news” articles. I know if I am not really interested in a story, I’ll skim half of it so that I can get the gist and then I stop reading. It is a side effect of our instant gratification culture. 

That being said, being a savvy news consumer takes some extra work. It is thinking about a news story past its headline. It is noting if the story is too general or too specific. It is making sure the facts are in line and sources are obvious and credible. It is being able to recognize propaganda, even if that propaganda supports your worldview.

That is possibly the biggest issue with fake news. If something supports your worldview, you no longer want to question it. It makes sense to you, so it must be legitimate. But more often than not that isn’t the case, and it’s just part of the divisiveness of the fake news agenda. A savvy consumer considers all sides. This is not an easy thing to do, but it is a necessary one.

College Magazine’s article about keeping intelligently informed brings up a good point; social media is not necessarily the most reliable place for news. Twitter might be a decent resource, but anyone can say anything. It requires a little bit of extra fact-checking. Social media is not the end all, though it is a great resource if used correctly. 

In the end, in order to continue to be informed, the consumer has to take the responsibility upon themselves. They must use a variation of news resources- and take advantage of available tools, such as AllSides. The greatest opponent to true information is ignorance, and if people can be taught simple, easy tricks to identify a news article that might be false, they will carry it with them. Everything begins and ends with education. People also have to begin to understand that even if it should be up to those who put that type of thing into the public sphere, it is really the consumer’s responsibility to figure out what is true and what isn’t. Most of all, the consumer has to realize that they can’t believe everything that supports their own ideas. 

I’m not sure that anarchy is sustainable, but I do think that one of the oldest punk ideals is particularly relevant in our new time of uncertainty: “question everything.” 

Featured Image: Fake news banner for live television originally uploaded by Freepik

New Normal

Posted on by dandross

Just like other facets of journalism, Public Relations has gone through some transformations over the last few years. PR has moved toward thought leadership (perhaps ghost writing) and is often much less about damage control and much more about building relationships. As an article from 5W notes, PR professionals work to engage customers and to create an environment in which consumers feel connected to a brand or organization. PR as a field has grown and expanded into much more than what the average person assumes it is (including myself, when I first began learning about contemporary PR practices). A PR professional is required to wear more hats than ever before.

Moving away from simple damage control does not mean this isn’t important in the age of social media. These days, everything is instant, and everyone is a “journalist.” This means that if there is an event such as a natural disaster or a professional issue within an organization, PR professionals feel more pressure than ever to control that situation immediately (before everybody else gets to it). 

Overall, more and more, people/consumers want transparency from organizations. According to Komarketing, 86% of consumers want and expect brands to be transparent on social media. This era of PR requires honesty from organizations. This also means that organizations are required to have more control of their messages to the public (versus the early days of third-party endorsements). Organizations and companies really have to be their own entities. That doesn’t mean that paid or earned media isn’t still common, but PR professionals are especially specific about messages that they are trying to get across and have to be more careful, as anyone can post anything on social media.

Transparency does not mean that organizations have stopped trying to make money. IMC (advertorials, etc.) are common and growing in PR. However, integrated marketing is often using technology and social media to garner positive publicity. This is barebones, modern PR. This also lends to the changing face of advertising. In order to “cut through the noise,” advertisers must be smarter and more creative than ever while still making the jobs of their PR people easy. A lesson learned early in PR courtesy of P.T. Barnum: not all publicity is necessarily good publicity. The advent of the Internet has led to major leaps and bounds as far as opportunities for advertising, but it still must be calculated.

As a consumer, I prefer transparency from the companies that I buy from. I value honesty in my personal relationships, so why wouldn’t I value it in products? Of course, in my opinion, we should also be naturally skeptical and suspicious of corporations and their motives. After all, the bottom line is what counts. Would I like to believe that a major company is doing something nice just for the sake of it? Of course. And to a point, maybe they are. But in the end it is about money, and it’s important to remember that.

Because of all of this, advertisers have created a world where sometimes we don’t even realize we are being advertised to. According to an article from MDG, the average American spends 23.6 hours online each week. That’s 23.6 hours that somebody has the opportunity to be advertised to. Advertisers know this and will use it. That is why the social media landscape is saturated with advertising. Those tweets that seem like they’re from the account of a teenage girl- you know the ones- they have a picture of a necklace or something like, “look what my boyfriend bought me!” These are bots, and they are advertising. Generally, we know and recognize this, but sometimes we don’t. Companies are getting smarter, but I would like to believe that consumers are, too. We all must continually evolve with social media.

Social Media Manager Vector originally posted by Freepik via Freepik

Print’s Not Dead: Surviving in the Digital Age

Posted on by dandross

Nicco Mele’s podcast episode addresses true journalism surviving in the age of social media. In a world that focuses on the bottom line, can journalism make it? 

Digital journalism is ever-changing along with the rest of the digital age. There is a way for journalists to interact with the public more intimately than ever before, and there is an idea that the public may be journalists themselves. None of this is necessarily bad. But, as Mele notes, it’s about money. The information on the Internet is accessible in many free forms to billions of people every day. If that is monetized, people will pay, but only to a point. Traditional journalism suffers because of this. And it isn’t necessarily getting better.

Personally, I love my University-given subscriptions to the Washington Post and the New York Times. And I adore NPR. But when it comes down to it, I get most of my news from Twitter. That makes me part of the problem. I’m too broke to pay for my own subscriptions, I’m too broke to donate to NPR or other institutions, but Twitter is free. It might be unreliable at times. But it is free and that is the deciding factor. 

John Oliver is right, though. My news I get on Twitter is generally regurgitated content from somewhere else, and, more often than not, the original source is a print one. So how do we keep print at the forefront? This is especially relevant for local news.

However, there is no easy answer.

John Oliver shares a clip regarding the Tribune sale in which their previous owner states that he must make enough money to afford the journalists, and that journalists must give the public what they want. Journalism isn’t about giving people what they want, it is about pursuit of truth. But in an age where the only way to survive digitally is to get clicks, organizations move toward “giving the public what they want” to survive. 

As a journalism student, I should be more willing to pay for the news I get. As John Oliver states, sooner or later, we’re all going to have to pay for it, or we’re all going to pay. Mele discusses subscription services and the ways in which to expand subscription options. As of right now, this seems like the best next move, but it has to be done effectively. (For example, the Guardian focuses on readership subscriptions and donations, not advertisers).

I won’t accept that print is dead. Maybe that’s because I’m a journalism student. Maybe that’s because Newsies has been my favorite movie since the 6th grade. Maybe that means I should finally subscribe to the Omaha World-Herald. I have a lot of romanticized ideas about print, I guess, and I want to believe in them. 

Because to me, even in the digital age, journalism should be about truth, justice, and providing a voice to the underdog. Giving in is selling out. And sell outs are cowards. True journalism does not adhere to cowardice. 

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

“Move Fast and Break Things”

Posted on by dandross

For the last few years, I have had a strange sense of pride for not being on Facebook. My mother had told me that I wasn’t allowed to make a Facebook account until I was 13. By that time, the platform had already started to move toward something that seemed like it was more for older people, and other platforms were more appealing. Fortunately or unfortunately, it has become clear that maybe I can’t live my life completely free of Facebook. I have recently been given the opportunity to aid in the social media management of an individual and the possession of Facebook and TikTok was a requirement. So, as of last week, I am officially a Facebook user. 

I have a lot of feelings about Facebook. I had part of this documentary before, and revisiting it just made me feel worse about having to make an account. I know that every social network has its problems. But Facebook… well, as the Frontline documentary focused on, the privacy issues that Facebook has faced are stressful, to say the least. It doesn’t affect me because I didn’t have a Facebook account during that major controversy, but it does, because Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, and I have been on Instagram since 2013.

So that brings me to the early motto of, “Move fast and break things.” In theory, I love this. Cause chaos. Do things. Be unafraid of consequences. But as a major organization, and even as an individual person, this is not an effective way to operate. Facebook obviously realized that, but not until they had moved fast and broken… a lot of things. 

Technology moves quickly. Sometimes so quickly that we can’t keep up. And though “move fast” might be unavoidable, Zuckerberg’s early philosophy of “Apologize later,” can’t apply to tech giants. Imagine if every social network did what Facebook did. As made clear in part 1 of the documentary, it was not necessarily malicious. It was tech optimism. It was blind desire and progress. 

Progress is not bad. Technology is not bad. But the ways that we use tech can be bad. Human beings are flawed, and they create flawed technologies. We see computers as perfect things, code and algorithms as sinister presences. But humans made them. Humans are behind everything, and humans make mistakes. 

It is up to the consumer to recognize this. Human beings, just like them, create everything behind the technology they use every day. I think sometimes this is easy to forget. We expect these innovations to operate perfectly. We are used to having very little go wrong. But every once in awhile, we get reminders that our technology is ever-changing and that means errors. It isn’t often that these errors are the same scale as Facebook’s controversies. But they happen every day.

The tech we use is young- the consumer has a responsibility to remember that, too. The Age of Information is real and happening, but it’s still early. Humans are creating truly beautiful things every day. But this is infancy. 

I think the struggles that Facebook has had show other platforms and tech companies what not to do. Somebody had to do that. And despite their issues, Facebook is still the #1 social media platform. Companies have to take more responsibility for the information they store. But the consumer has to take responsibility, too, for what they share and how they use technology. 

Cover Photo: Pile of 3d facebook logos, originally uploaded by natanaelginting

Enrichment or Isolation?

Posted on by dandross

In Sherry Turkle’s Ted Talk, she suggests that even though we are constantly connected, we are more alone than ever. I would partially agree with her. I do think that our attention to our devices sometimes can limit our real life. 

When I was around the age of 9, I didn’t have limits put on my time online and I wasn’t monitored very closely. I had always been an anxious kid. I had friends, but I found community in online Proboards RPGs. They were normally centered around things I loved, like the Percy Jackson and Warrior Cats books. I thought they cultivated my love for writing. I mean, they did. But I also ended up talking to a lot of strangers, and even though all of them, in my experience, were harmless (that whole “don’t talk to strangers on the Internet” thing always seemed somewhat silly to me) it still was detrimental to my regular development. I think it deepened my anxiety and depression. I would spend hours on those RPGs, or on DeviantART, and I felt like I was in the only place that understood me, when in reality I was isolating myself. I was also going through a lot at that time in my outside life- experiencing deep loss and death for the first time as a kid. These online communities made me feel safe, but I should have been discussing my feelings and fears with somebody who truly knew me.

This contact with online-only relationships made me more wary of the Internet when I got older. After a negative experience with somebody I had met on the RPGs, I stayed away from any social media or online communities for a year or so. I got a Twitter when I was 13 or 14, though, and it opened up my online world again. This time, I was more careful about talking to strangers and limiting my time. Although it seems that the Internet has changed a lot, I imagine there are still kids writing silly things on RPG sites, but I just hope that their parents are watching them.

That isn’t to say I think relationships forged and cultivated online are bad. But I do believe there has to be an element of real life. You’ve met once, or you see each other once a year, or something like that. In my experience, it’s hard to know someone if you don’t ever know them.

I’ve mentioned in a previous blog about how Apple products let you set time limits and I tend to ignore them. After my “4 hours without technology” experience, I’ve decided to not ignore my time limits. I set them for a reason, after all. They are meant to help me be more present. We’ll see if following these limits actually helps.

Relationships online can be rewarding and fulfilling. For example, I keep in touch with people that graduated a couple of years before me, but I wasn’t very close with. Once we followed each other on Twitter it turned out we had a lot of similar interests. I also appreciate the ability to use technology to communicate as my boyfriend goes out of town for work fairly often, and he can FaceTime or call me, or I can check his location to make sure I’m not calling him when he’s working. I wouldn’t say technology “enhances” my relationships, but I wouldn’t say it is necessarily a major detriment, either. It’s mostly about convenience. I do find it necessary to set rules sometimes, like, “No phones at the dinner table.” If you are aware of your consumption, it becomes less of a problem.

With all of this being said, I believe technology can be a great tool as far as relationships go. But I think some face-to-face time is necessary or you might not know who somebody truly is. 

Cover photo courtesy of Freepik

Take a Break

Posted on by dandross

This week we were tasked with achieving four straight hours technology-less. I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive. I often go to my phone without giving it a second thought. I also spend a lot of my free time this time of year watching Netflix. It’s difficult for me to concentrate on much of anything for four hours, really, even if it’s something like reading. Luckily, we got a nice day yesterday (Feb. 2nd), and I was able to get outside for that four-hour time period. My dog and I took a 5-mile walk and even got to visit friends on the trek! He was thankful to get out of the house and so was I. Comparatively, this winter hasn’t been too bad as far as Nebraska winters go, but the cold, cloudy weather is hard on both of us. 

I believe that Nismo and I’s walk was improved by me not worrying about my phone. I was able to give full attention to him and truly enjoy the unusually warm day. Sometimes when Nismo and I take walks I’ll be checking my step count or glancing at notifications. This time, though, ignoring technology allowed me to be fully present. I didn’t have to think about making that effort, either; it was easy. It was honestly a great day.

I do think that had it not been so nice out, I would have had a much more difficult time with this task. Winter is hard (particularly because of SAD). It is nearly impossible for me to go without technology when I’m constantly cooped up inside. I’m being a little dramatic, I suppose, but I do tend to default to scrolling through my phone or watching a show or movie when the weather gets nasty because I like constant distraction. My only other idea is reading or writing, which rarely entertains me for more than a couple of hours. I’m thankful to have had such a nice day to take a break. It reminded me to be more mindful about how much time I devote to technology in my everyday, as I often revert to picking up my phone or laptop without thinking. Turns out I might need more hobbies. 

Plugged In

Posted on by dandross

Despite its benefits, social media can be incredibly overwhelming. Sometimes I get the desire to unplug and shut it all down. Not necessarily because I feel pulled in multiple directions or bogged down by the volume or frequency, but because people can truly say anything. I like social media, in general, but there can be quite a bit of negativity. Often there is drama. I don’t like that it sucks me in. It’s like a form of entertainment, seeing people lose their minds on a screen about generally inconsequential things, but I feel more drained afterward. It isn’t worth my time. 

When my band broke up, the social media posts about us were an absolute mess. Really, our break-up was aggravated by a social media post in the first place. Somebody who wasn’t even a band member ended up getting punched in the face for it (and it was live streamed). Although the dissipation of our band ended up being a good thing in the end, experiences like that make me want to delete social media altogether.

However, there are other times that I really enjoy social media. When I’m alone and feel anxious, I scroll through Twitter for memes. It helps me calm down and distracts me. But I can’t help but wonder: does that mean it’s becoming a crutch? Do I rely on social media instead of tackling my issues head-on? 

In his song “Blast Damage Days,” Jeff Rosenstock says, “These are the Amazon days, we are the binge-watching age//And we’ll be stuck in a screen until our phones fall asleep.” In their song, “The Entertainment’s Here,” AJR says, “You wonder what they did before inventing the phone//Yeah, how could anybody face the quiet alone?” These lyrics are a little too relevant, and it is genuinely refreshing to see artists tackling these questions of technology. But it also forces you to think about your own consumption and reliance on tech.

In order to combat the constant information, I’ve placed time limits for social media apps on my phone. In truth, though, this doesn’t do much. iPhone will give you an option as to whether you want to continue on the app for 5 minutes or ignore your limit for the rest of the day. I generally choose the latter. Maybe I set the limits to make myself feel better, but I ignore them for convenience. 

I believe that FOMO is very real. However, I think it affected me a lot more in high school and my freshman year of college. Seeing other people having more fun than me on social media made me feel bad about myself. I spent a lot of time trying to cultivate the “right” Instagram images for instant gratification. But I was also having real experiences at the same time (maybe not as much in high school, but certainly when I entered college). Eventually it stops feeling like such a race. But that doesn’t mean I don’t make an effort to post my vacation photos or consider a caption for a long time before I post. I still posted a photo for my second anniversary with my boyfriend. I still have the desire to show everyone how “great” my life is. Social media breeds that type of behavior and even if you grow out of certain things, it doesn’t necessarily go away. Human beings crave validation.

In my social media class we’ve been talking about cultivating your “personal brand.” I know that I have one, but I’m not exactly sure what it is yet. As far as FOMO and JOMO go, I think I spend a lot of time trying to show how “punk rock” I am on social media, or, as mentioned, post a lot of photos from travelling, or concerts, or other specific experiences. Maybe that’s what it is; for the most part, I try to focus on experiences. Again, I guess, to show how fantastic my life must be. That’s the issue, isn’t it? It’s always a competition. Maybe I want other people to feel FOMO. Maybe I just like attention. Or maybe it’s genuine, and I truly just want to share joy. I don’t know. It’s probably a little bit of all of that. Social media is complex, but maybe it doesn’t have to be. I suppose now I’m overthinking it.

In order to get the most out of my life, it might be smart to disconnect more. I think this blog is evidence of that. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a break and I don’t give it to myself enough because I truly am worried about missing something. I’m used to being constantly connected. Letting go of some of that is scarier than knowingly relying on it. “Personalized” social media gives us the illusion of control, and human beings are more desperate for control than they are for validation. Being plugged in gives us both.

Cover Photo: Outlet Background, courtesy of FreePik

The Art of Consumption

Posted on by dandross

First post, so introductions are in order, right? I’m Dani Dross, currently a junior at Creighton University. I’m majoring in Journalism on the PR Track and minoring in Communications. Ideally, I would like to do music journalism, whether that be in the form of reviews, interviews, or something else- but I’m open to basically whatever comes at me. I’m in this class (Media Literacy and Info Concepts) because I have to be, but I also think that in today’s day and age, the concept of media literacy is more important than ever. You cannot count on every post or news article to be completely factual. It is up to you, the consumer, to differentiate between what is reliable information and what is not.

As a Journalism student, I try to consume the news media every day in different forms. I get New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR updates every morning, and I also scroll through Twitter at least once a day, where I can stay up to date on current events by following journalists and news outlets (as well as pop culture news). I wouldn’t say I’m married to my phone, however. It’s convenient and effective and I like to take advantage of the “free” digital news subscriptions that the University offers. But I also have a special place in my heart for print and consume newspapers and magazines when I can. Those cost money, of course, so that’s a little more difficult for me as a college student. And like any college student, I do like the constantly available, ready-to-consume information on my phone and laptop. 

Although I am a Journalism student (therefore maybe a little biased) it is incredibly important to always be critical of the news media. Ideally, we would like to believe that the news and the people who bring it to the public are trustworthy. But journalists are human too. They make mistakes and let personal opinions sneak through. As long as this isn’t purposeful and they are trying to uphold the values of a journalist, I don’t really think this is a huge issue. In my opinion, being a journalist is doing your best to expose corruption, bring as much factual information to the public as possible, and be a voice for the voiceless. I say “doing your best” because that’s all anyone can do. I think that’s okay. 

That brings me back to the role of the consumer. We live in a media-saturated world. In some ways that’s cool- lots of options, some personability. But it’s also difficult. The average everyday person has to be relied upon and trusted to make decisions about what they hear, see, and read. Plenty of people will hear something and immediately take it to be fact. This is irresponsible. Social media, news media, etc. have to be used responsibly or they’re worthless. 

In a bit of a different vein, as far as programming goes: I did things a little out of order and took a higher level graphic design class before computer science, which I am taking now. So my HTML/CSS experience is minimal and mediocre. It is definitely not my thing.

I’m excited for this class because every day, especially as a Journalism student, I have to strive to be a better, savvier consumer of media. Nothing in the world can be improved if we can’t form opinions about the things that are happening to us or that we are bringing upon ourselves as a race (y’know, the human race). We have to make things better for ourselves; but we have to understand the world and our roles in it first. 

Photo: NEWSIES originally uploaded by A Ricci

Made available under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 license