Listen Here
By: Grant Goetcheus
Twitter: @goetcheusg
Email: goetcheusg@Findlay.edu
Stay connected with what is happening around us and around the world is a hard thing to do. Not to mention being a very busy college student at the same time. So with this in mind news stations and news media sites have started to go to where the next generation of audience is-online. From newspapers to TV stations they have begun to have an online presence to keep everyone in the now of the most recent information.
According to a 2016 study by Pew Research, social media is the go-to election news source for Millennials, with 35% citing it as their top source, followed by news websites and apps (18%). Just 12% say they prefer to get their news from cable TV. And a 2015 Pew study indicated that 61% of Millennials use Facebook to read their political news.
The research was only done on political news, but there is so much more news content out there for college students to see and it’s easy to find.
Jonathan Mitchell, a pharmacy student said “I get my news from several different online news sites. Sometimes Facebook, Twitter and even Reddit. I wouldn’t say those are particularly accurate. Sometimes I will read Washington Post, Chicago Tribune. If I wanted something specific I would do a google search for it. And see what comes up”
Matt Dick, an UF student, stated “I get my news from twitter accounts like CNN and Fox. I don’t follow specific people and I get my news from people around my same age.”
Kayla Harris, an equestrian student shared here source list.
“I mostly get my news from the radio, Facebook and listening to other peoples conversations. I usually rely on my friends who post things about the news. Like what their interests are so I only get certain opinions about the news through Facebook.”
Now that news is so available that means that there is an additional source of information-fake news. Google Trends is a public web facility of Google Inc., based on Google Search that shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world. If you look up fake news on Google trends you can see it picked up in Oct 2016 and it peaked in Feb 2017. It has since gone down but that doesn’t mean that it is going away. So students need to be educated on how to spot fake news.
“I usually take news for what it is. If it seems legitimate. If it is about something I’m interested in then I gather more information about it from other websites,” said Harris. “To see if it just a fake post someone has put up just for attention.”
“If I see something that is controversial then I will go to multiple sources. To see if I see the same thing reported on those different sites. I will also go talk to friends to see what they have seen,” said Mitchell.
“I like to think it is easy to determine what is fake and what is not. You got to cross reference it and double check and follow up to make sure it is right,” stated Dick.
So when it comes to news it is always important to see what other have to say about a topic and to see where it is coming from.
References and Interviews:
http://college.usatoday.com/2016/10/17/college-students-election-info-phones/
Jonathon Mitchell interviewed and transcribed on Friday, 22nd @ 4 pm
Kayla Harris interviewed and transcribed on Friday, 22nd @ 4:15 pm
Matt Dick interviewed and transcribed on Friday, 22nd @ 4:30 pm
