{"id":165878,"date":"2019-10-03T17:56:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T09:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/featured\/-1806117\/"},"modified":"2019-10-03T17:56:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T09:56:58","slug":"study-americans-dont-trust-social-media-to-deliver-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/2019\/10\/03\/study-americans-dont-trust-social-media-to-deliver-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: Americans Don\u2019t Trust Social Media To Deliver News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(via Matthew Guay\/Unsplash)<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Most Americans are wary of social media companies’ role in delivering news.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent survey<\/a> by the Pew Research Center highlights a pessimistic nation, suspicious of social networks’ control over information.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 60 percent of respondents say the firms have “too much” authority over the mix of reports they see. Just 15 percent said they don’t have enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s no secret that platforms like Facebook and Twitter control the content on their feeds using algorithms that rank and prioritize posts tailored to the interests of each user.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while Silicon Valley execs claim these efforts are meant to enhance the news experience, most Americans maintain they just make things worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

A majority of people (82 percent) believe that social networks favor some news organizations\u2014specifically, those that produce attention-grabbing articles, have a high number of social media followers, and show a certain political stance\u2014over others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which they do.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Pew, most companies have established policies that prioritize certain news sources and ban or limit others, and use monetization to discourage particular behaviors.<\/span><\/p>\n

But despite our mistrust, social media constitutes an increasingly large portion of the U.S. news diet.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than half of polled adults “sometimes” get news from social networks\u2014up from 47 percent last year; 28 percent said they check it “often”\u2014 up from 20 percent in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

I admittedly open Twitter before the dedicated news apps on my phone, and often learn about the latest scandals via Instagram Stories rather than TV broadcasters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Twitter and Facebook have, somewhat ironically, been making headlines lately for new approaches\u2014hiding posts<\/a>, exempting specific users<\/a>\u2014that many worry will only further censor what we see.<\/span><\/p>\n

Americans, however, seem more concerned with the overall low quality of news available online: About half of U.S. adults say one-sided news (53 percent) and inaccurate news (51 percent) are big problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook is far and away the most popular social media site for news; about half (52 percent) of the nation gets information there.<\/span><\/p>\n

But taking a break from the service\u2014and its uneven coverage\u2014could be good for your health.<\/span><\/p>\n

A new study<\/a> from Texas A&M University and Ecuador’s Universidad de las Americas found that U.S. undergraduate students who logged off of Facebook for a week consumed less news and experienced greater wellbeing.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fair, this sounds like a doom-and-gloom problem, rather than a social network concern: When half the participants took a Facebook break, they didn’t substitute traditional media for digital news.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also reported more “healthy behavior”: eating out less, making fewer impulse purchases, more efficiently managing time, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our results suggest that using Facebook induces feelings of depression,” the researchers said<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It remains unclear, though, whether that’s the product of a more healthy lifestyle, or simply reading less news.<\/span><\/p>\n

More on Geek.com:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n