Messaging Apps vs Social Media for News

One of the most interesting aspects of social media to me is its capacity for news delivery and how news spreads.

This article focuses on how social media platforms are becoming less common for news sharing in younger generations. Instead, messaging apps like WhatsApp are beginning to take their place. A Reuters report supposes that part of the reason for this shift from social media to messaging apps is due to users wanting to 'cut through the noise of social media.'

More than 54% of users noted they use social media as a news source, but that number is ever-decreasing. Of the 70,000 Reuters respondents, only 24% think social media appropriately separates fact from fiction. Additionally, besides just the desire to cut through the noise of social media, the author also writes that users are wanting to share news in a less public setting (privately with peers).

This desire to be less public about one's news/opinions is one of the most interesting parts of the article to me. I remember years ago that one of the selling points of social media was this connectivity with large communities/populations, this sort of public version of one's life. But I feel I've seen a backlash against this public airing of one's everyday life. Many of my friends and family prefer to share news links and stories via messaging (Facebook or Twitter) rather than publicly on their timeline or newsfeed. I'm sure this is due to the ever-polarizing climate surrounding news and politics these days.

Twitter is still my go-to source for fast news. One aspect of my job is to support our emergency management team, and in times of world incidents, searching Twitter for a hashtag or keyword is still the quickest way to get up to speed on the key points in a news story. Personally, I have not found the need to move to a messaging app for this. (Perhaps this makes me behind the times!)

But if I eventually want to try out a messaging app for news, the most popular apps are WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. There are also several options growing in popularity for news aggregator apps. Snapchat Discover, a news aggregator linked to Snapchat accounts, has doubled its audience usage in the last year, as has Apple News, another aggregator app.

What say ye? Do you all get news from social media or messaging apps? Or, from even more vintage sources, like a newspaper? :p

Comments

  1. Devlin PeckJuly 5, 2017 at 11:49 AM

    I love this post.. it really gets me thinkin! Personally, I get my news from the Apple News app that you mentioned. I like the aggregation...it lets me view news from various sources and give more importance to the topics I am interested in, such as world news or technology. There have been times when I share news articles from that app in a text message, but this is not a regular practice in my friend group and the findings you refer to surprised me.

    I wonder if we should be alarmed by these findings? Only viewing news that's sent by friends may lead to a degree of...group mindedness? Maybe the "hive mind" is what I'm going for. This is good for finding news stories relevant to your interests, but it could be good to view news from sources that you don't necessarily agree with or that your friends might not care to share. What do you think?

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