''We Media'' And Democracy - Emma Norton

Completing my summer work proves to me that my news comes from a variety of sources. Looking at the news stories I gathered, I can see that a lot of my news comes from television news shows and from word of mouth.  However, it is also true to say that my news could come from social media when delivered via word of mouth, and it is uncertain whether I can say that source is trusted or not due to the uncertainty of its original source. Most of my news and information that comes from news programmes can be said to be reputable and reliable due to its wide spread nature and ‘’big media’’ background. My news often comes from programmes such as the BBC News which although may be biased, often recounts valid stories of current affairs and news articles, similar to other news programmes on British television. The BBC is also a trustworthy source, in my opinion, as it is only accountable to the taxpaying public who solely fund its programmes and distribution. This allows me to believe it is more reliable due to the fact it is not run by a ‘’media baron’’ who may influence his views on the media texts he distributes.

The news that I get off of the Internet is drastically less credible in comparison to this. From the Internet, my sources include social media sights, the views of my peers, bloggers and vloggers. All of the aforesaid sources are subject to opinion and are definitely not as reputable as well-known, ‘’big media’’ industries that are responsible for most of the news we are subject to. News from the Internet often does not have a credible or known original source so cannot at all be held dependable or trustworthy. This could also be the case with news via word of mouth as peers may not remember or gather their information from ‘’big media’’ or credible sources. Many other news programmes spread this way may also come from ‘’new media’’ which would be created by citizen journalists and be just as unreliable as social media articles.

The news articles I discovered over the summer included the heart-breaking story about Cecil the lion.  I found out about this via a news programme on day time television. I believe this to be a trustable account of the events of the killing of Cecil the lion due to it being from the public-funded BBC. From finding out this story, I went on to ask others their opinion of what happened and whether they had anything to add about what they had heard of the story. I also went on to research the story on both news websites and on the Twitter hashtag #CecilTheLion to see views of others around the world that had access to this event.

Another news story I discovered was the refugee situation across Syria and Europe. With the sensitive nature of this topic, I decided not to ask others what they thought about this subject but continued to follow it on the local news and various news websites. The nature of this story meant at first the press displayed the idea of taking in refugees rather negatively and ensured that the public’s ideas of the topics were slightly warped. However, after a ‘’mind-changing’’ photo surfaced, the press began to use positive words and approach the events differently. After seeing this change of mind, I no longer looked for this story in newspapers, but instead relied on news programmes to absorb information. My main source of information for this news story was BBC News, broadcast on national television.

Another news story I came across was from MTV. Although not the most reputable of sources, the channel often reports the most recent of celebrity news. This is where I found out about the story, although maybe heightened by MTV, of Kanye West apparently running for President. Despite watching this channel, I do not buy into its news stories as I often view them as gossip or the most recent ‘’twitter war’’ between celebrities of a complete different world to people of my background. With this news story, I shared my opinion and views with others and jested about the situation online. Many of my peers also agreed that the story or source it came from could not be completely reputable or confidently sourced. Overall, I believe this story to be one that has been amplified by the press and media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The final news story I found was the World Championships for Athletics and the winning of gold by Jessica Ennis. This was massive news for Britain after her success at the 2012 Olympics. I got this information from my mum who had watched the World Championships herself. I believe my mum witnessing this event to be a confident and reputable source as she witnessed the event herself. The overall media coverage of this however was not as largely spread as other successes by her and other athletes. I went on to tell others about this as I believed it to be a big achievement after recently becoming a mother. Other than that, I didn’t go on to further share this story.

Overall, my summer work proves that many different media sources hold different amounts of reliability. It also shows that the various amount of news stories, depending on their nature and topic, come from various different sources. I also learnt that I get my news from a wide variety of sources, again differing in their credibility. My news stories were also of various different topics which shows me that my peers are not similar and have interests in different things therefore opening me up to a wider selection of stories that I would not have before heard about. I believe that many news stories are ‘regurgitated’’ and recycled by others meaning that their meaning or true purpose is expressed differently than originally intended by the original source of the story.