Social media has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors, and publishers of news and information. Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

There is no argument to the fact that social media is universal and can be accessed by virtually anyone in a technologically advanced country or city. News travels within seconds and is passed down from one social networking site to another within a matter of minutes. A news story can already be on twitter or Facebook before it even reaches radio and TV broadcasting stations. Although the speed may be very convenient, the authenticity of the actual information itself can be questionable. Because anyone can post whatever they like, the facts become misconstrued, almost like a virtual game of broken telephone, it becomes different each time. The varying information then becomes publicly accessed, leaving questions of what is true and what is false. It’s very difficult to pinpoint if social media increases or decreases the quality of news when you look at it from opposing angles.  Social media increases the quality of news due to its high rate of speedy public access but it can decrease it with the level of twisted facts. This can happen due to the all freedom that comes with social networking postings. For entertainment purposes, some may add more “details” to a story or in many cases, bias can play a huge role. Depending on the story being told, because everyday citizens are the ones posting, personal feelings and opinions can mix with the news/information which can cause the reader(s) to become offended which can then, in turn, spark another post and so on. At the end of the day social media is supposed to be a beneficiary tool for the public, if you want to see people battling over politics and news stories that’s the place to be, but if you just want strictly facts, its better to stick to the news stations, it’s less messy.