Making The News Viral Gossip In The Wireless Age in Generation Txt
Introduction
While this may seem a bit of a gross overgeneralization, there is a huge difference a technology as well as a generation gap, between those who grew up in the digital and wireless information age as an accepted part of life, and those who did not. While this difference wont last forever, the fact this that this generation is on the front lines of a fundamentally changing force to our society, to our economy, to global life as we know it, in every possible way we can imagine, and in some we can not.
Nowhere is this more apparent in how so-called Generation Txt or Generation Y or sometimes even Z (the demographic currently about 25 years or younger) consumes information and media, particularly online. And nowhere is this more striking than their use of mobile technology and the information they consume there from in just about every aspect of their lives from e-commerce, which is a growing trend in every demographic (approximately 23Billion plus worth of sales will go via MOBILE e-commerce by 2015 if not sooner), to e-learning, to consuming information (including the news) to playing games or just talking with friends via texting or via good old mobile phone.
No information or formal study however, has been done on how prepared this generation (or any generation who uses the internet via any device) for that matter, is to separate fact from fiction, particularly in an age where real information is blurring with advertising, astroturfing (product placement or branding of a person running for office for example disguised as unbiased information). Or just the lone blogger in the wilderness. And of course the transition of the real read traditional or old media to online forms.
Not to mention new sources of journalism that are just as credible, but not corporately owned.
The problem is however, figuring out what is real and what is not. What is biased and what is neutral. What is news and what is fluff or worse a commercial in news or worse, propagandas clothes. And how in particular a certain very vulnerable and impressionable demographic is affected by this, and how they react accordingly.
Anyone can put up a website. Thousands are put up every day. How can one be sure that the information posted there is unbiased, correct and true Much less news. In an age of viral marketing, a clever website, carrying false news can travel via mass emailed link, via social networks, among other things, in the blink of an eye, globally. And that includes the sites of the mainstream media, who have been shown to be consistently biased. There has NEVER been a power like this at the disposal of human kind. We are simply unprepared to deal with this.
However, the fact remains, that this segment, so-called Generation Txt - of society is the first to be affected by a new social phenomenon called swarming literally created by news, more accurately the announcement, or advertisement, for example, of an event taking place at a certain time and place. Not to mention branding, is more technologically hip, uses social media and is online more. But dont kid yourself. This is just the first wave. It is going to be everywhere because everyone will have to be at least somewhat computer and internet literate to survive in the new economy.
This is an incredibly powerful tool, for example for everyone from advertisers to political organizers (as has already been proved from the arrival of the so called Foodie Trucks in cities selling highly specialized gourmet food merchandise, to the amazing student protest at Gaulludet University in Washington DC, the only college in the country for deaf students, who used texting to overcome their disability and hold a successful campus wide protest using wireless devices with texting ability, that led to the ouster of the then current and hearing college President and the institution of the colleges first deaf president (and this was before Obama even thought of running for U.S. President.)
Colleges across the country are well aware of how tuned in their students are for example in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy, virtually every college campus has instituted a college wide system that immediately alerts students via the campus wide network of safety alerts on campus property that are sent via all students mobile devices. Yet they consistently fail their students in things like teaching them web and media literacy.
However the more important questions are what are the implications of this kind of technology, not to mention the content consumed on it, how people interpret what they read on it, much less their behavior in response to what they consume, and if they count it as verifiable news or not, and the clear impact it has on human behavior, from individual actions to creating mass movements, and very quickly, especially given peoples clear lack of ability to distinguish fact from fiction.
This study has taken a stab at figuring out trends in such behavior, along with analyzing what other impacts affect peoples interaction with online media, including race, gender and disability bias, critical thinking skills, access to education and the technology in the first place, (the so-called digital divide) use of certain technology and social media sites to begin with (for example Face book has had major problems with privacy concerns and educated people are fleeing from the service), and many people do not use Twitter. Its a very particular and quirky demographic, particularly when used in combination. And our choice to use the two is a particular failing, considering that fact alone, plus the strategic relationship between the two companies Face book and Twitter, and the lack of overlap between our targeted demographic. The people in the know about these things are hardly going to answer honestly. And that may be one of the reasons for the interesting anomalies we got at the end of our study, which we will discuss in the appendices.
This is not widely known information but information we turned up in subsequent research. But one look at the following graph, and a bit of knowledge of computer science, with the understanding that the funny round, brightly colored cylindrical things in the center of the diagram below are distributed databases, one of which is widely suspected to be Face book and the other is MySpace, by many civil libertarian groups for example the ACLU, and the Electronic Freedom Foundation, of being at a minimum a commercial seller of ones private information, and at worst, a part of a highly secret government black box program called TIA, are very worried about Face book in particular, and this may explain exactly why we got such weird anomalies in OUR study.
Figure 1 Total Intelligence Awareness Schematic as presented to Congress by the NSA
However, whatever the reason behind the anomalies, this study still has merit, and we believe will add to the existing and growing body of literature on what students in particular are doing in terms of consuming information, deciding whether it counts as news or not, and recording how they react in response. Even the disparities in how respondents answered our survey are interesting, which we will show in the appendix.
Everyone except those who used Twitter, double responded (at least) to the medium they used to consume information they considered news. Yet very few people could identify that they had heard about one of the biggest news stories of the year, and a question we included in our study because of that the disaster in Haiti on television. Which means that the survey respondents ARE NOT getting their news, or the information they consider to be so, from television. So they are getting it from somewhere else. Unless a little birdie told them, it looks to us that they saw it online, probably through Face book, although the results are not conclusive and the fact that they dont remember, per the results of the study, is also part of a cultural racism that is another subject we will discuss later. But the fact they are not getting their news from television, but are getting their entertainment from it (again, results from the survey showed us that, as we will discuss) is interesting, but is a phenomenon that wont last very long, given what is coming down the pipe in terms of wireless apps and entertainment.
But the disconnect between news and TV already for this generation is an interesting phenomenon in and of itself, particularly since Face book is already linked to Twitter. And the privacy, not to mention other censorship issues surrounding Face book, while never proved, and there is no article published, merely rumors floating in the IT sphere, are that Google, who has the government account for the Department of Homeland Security, is tied directly into Face book. As well as other social networking sites. That is how they found the Salahis after they broke into the White House state dinner. At least thats the official story. Why were they looking is another matter. But ask yourself, how would the Secret Service know how to find or even where to look for, the pictures the couple took at the event posted on their Face book page. Or even that the Salahis had one to begin with. Again, the official story is that Face book contacted the Secret Service. But how would FACEBOOK know how to look or why That means there is some serious data mining going on there and some high level communication. So that story doesnt fly either. Since the couple had already been cleared by the Pentagon, and the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security are already linked, there is a very good possibility that fundamental privacy issues are at stake here, not to mention censorship.
These are not issues that are widely written about, known about, or even reported on outside of a very tightly knit nonprofit advocacy group in policy land in DC. And are issues technically outside the scope of our study. We learned about them AFTER we launched our study on Face book. However, we thought that they were serious enough to mention here, particularly given that we might have accidentally skewed our study as a result.
What we aim to do is fairly limited in scope. Which is to analyze how students consume and react to what they hear and see as accurate information that they interpret as news, and how they respond accordingly.
The answers and information we got back from our survey are far from conclusive, which is due, primarily to our own failures in survey methodology and what we did not know at the beginning of this process. We will point those failings out at the end of this paper. Now that we have been through this process once, and have started wading through the research that is available, we understand what we did right, and more importantly, what we did wrong. And how to correct those errors next time, as well as make up for said mistakes through our research. Nevertheless, we hope this study also helps future researchers in their own endeavors to understand a new phenomenon shaping human behavior and society in fundamental and yet unforeseen, much less than understood ways.
Literature Review
Alboher, M. (2008, Nov 12). Keeping Up, When your industry changes. New YorkTimes.
Discusses a meeting of professional journalists, both with new and old media backgrounds, who hold a debate about the impact of new media on consumption of news. They reach the conclusion that those who are disconnected from the wired world, either in producing or consuming information (they limit their discussion to news, are both disconnected, behind the times and will have a hard time catching up. However the article is limited in its use of mobile devices used, does not discuss the distinction between news and gossip and unsubstantiated rumor, and completely dismisses perhaps the greatest impact of the internet on news of all. Not just consumers consumption of it, and where, but their creation of it, and how mainstream journalists are starting to be scooped by this new brand of prosumer journalists who happen to be where no professional dares to go.
Al-Obaidi, J., Lamb-Williams, C., Mordas, V. (2004). The king of all mediums a field study of college students use of mediums for news. International Journal of Instructional Media, 31(3), 239-256.
This is a study that seems to contradict the overwhelming evidence of studies of both the demographic we studied and the population overall, that claims that for example, students at the University of Alabama only accessed the internet for news 1 of the time. However since this extremely old data (collected almost 11 years ago), the stunning advancement in technology and options for mobile devices almost makes this irrelevant now. We will however use this study to show how college students use different forms of media to access news and different forms of information, and how well they remembered the information they consumed on different mediums (i.e. how much different consumption via different technologies affected them with regards to the information received).
Berlau, J. (2002, April 1). Online Rumor Mill Spins Its Own Myth Snopes.com Is Presented by Some Media Outlets as an Unbiased Arbiter of Rumors and Hoaxes. But Critics Say Its Liberal Bias Causes It to Create Urban Legends of Its Own. Insight on the News, 18, 15. Retrieved May 4, 2010
We will rely on this article as source material to discuss one of the issues we consider important about the consumption of news and students behavior and reaction to it namely the spread of the false rumor and gossip parading as real news. This is a real and growing phenomenon, and one which we consider a force to consider, particularly given the issue of media literacy, almost instantaneous news coverage 247, and the inability to differentiate fact from fiction.
Bucy, E. P. (2003). Media Credibility Reconsidered Synergy Effects Be between On-air and Online News. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 80(2), 247. Retrieved May 4, 2010
Discusses the credibility gap between online and offline journalism as the continued trend to consume news online increases unabated. While this is slanted towards the undeniable snobbery of a mainstream journalists perspective (since there are credible citizen journalists online) it raises the important questions and contains the statistics we intend to use in our study about movement across all demographics to online media consumption and the failure of ability to sort out fact from fiction, a real danger in the wild west of online information consumption, including so-called news consumption.
Chase, M., Mulvenon, J. (2002). Youve Got Dissent Chinese Dissident Use of the Internet and Beijings Counter-Strategies. Santa Monica, CA Rand. P.1. Retrieved May 4, 2010
While the entire book is a fascinating read and resource to be used in our study, the very first chapter deals with precisely the issue of the internets power to mobilize masses of people using news albeit from untraditional sources and citizen organizers and journalists, to organize mass movements. The book also discusses the Chinese governments movements to squash such dissent. Given the moves in the U.S., especially with laws like FISA and net neutrality on the table, not to mention the U.S. militarys ownership of the majority of airspace in this country, this will be used to discuss issues like First Amendment rights, censorship, mass movement organization, the rise of independent journalism, the danger of mass mobs, the manipulation of such technology and methods for undemocratic purposes, especially against our main contention that people, especially students, have no real critical reasoning skills, much less media literacy, or are able to interpret what is real information or news or not.
Demski, J. (2009). Face book Training Wheels A Secured Social Networking Site Allows Schools to Incorporate the Technology into Academics While Preparing Students for the Perils of Online Communities. T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), 36(4), 24. Retrieved May 4, 2010
Questions even the use of using Facebook either in academia or by students as an insecure technology that even students do not trust. This will be used in several ways in our final report. Our potential failure in methodology and information gathering, as this may have influenced respondents answers to our questions, and furthermore use of Face book at all in any academic setting, further casting light on professors who even encourage its use in any classroom setting or for research of any kind, especially without warning students of the inherent dangers of particularly THIS social medium.
Dibean, W., Garrison, B. (2001). How Six Online Newspapers Use Web Technologies. Newspaper Research Journal, 22(2), 79. Retrieved May 4, 2010
Discusses in depth how traditional old media are attempting to transition online. Will be used to discuss how students interact with news, how they use it, why they use it, how effective it is, and how and why these efforts are effective or not, within the broader framework we have set out about media literacy, student ability to understand legitimacy of sources online, and even what constitutes news.
Diddi, A., Larose, R. (2004). The Making of News Junkies Uses and gratifications and the formation of news habits among college students in the new media environment. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association.
While this study makes the point that more and more mainstream news organizations are integrated into the internet, thus fears that college students arent getting informed by reading a newspaper by going online, as growing numbers of studies shows they are to get their news, and therefore are uninformed, are unfounded, it does not address the issue that newspapers and TV (i.e. mainstream, traditional media) are the only way to access real news, with no discussion about media bias, much less internet reliability, which is a major failing of this study.
Diddi, A., LaRose, R. (2006). Getting hooked on news uses and gratifications andthe formation of news habits among college students in an internet environment.Journal of Broadcasting Electronic Media, 50(2), 193-210.
This study claims that most students still rely on cable, not the internet for news, despite the fact that students are all hooked into colleges wired systems. This will again be used as a comparative study, to determine if our data points and case studies are valid or not. Given the increased used of wireless devices, even in the last four years, we believe this study is outdated, as is its findings. The technology and its impact on peoples behavior, of whatever demographic is moving that quickly. When you have Congress people using Twitter to change votes on the Hill, such studies start to look ludicrous if not antiquated.
Ebo, B. (Ed.). (1998). Cyberghetto or Cybertopia Race, Class, and Gender on the Internet. Westport, CT Praeger Publishers. Retrieved May 4, 2010
This book is a comprehensive overview and will be used as such as a reference to discuss issues related to biases online in not only news coverage, how students interpret it, but how people are even able to access it (the so called digital divide. The book looks at things like niche marketing and targeting that students are not aware of, that guides the news they read, not to mention the advertising they see (embedded often in news, the ability of the disabilities community to access the internet, gender bias in technology and marketing, not to mention news coverage and who presents the news, and the resulting impact on how students react to such coverage. Overall an important research tool for our study on socioeconomic issues that reach far outside of cyberspace, but affect the issues inside it.
Elasmar, M. G., Carter, M. E. (1996). Use of E-mail by College Students and Implications for Curriculum. Journalism Mass Communication Educator, 51(2), 46. Retrieved May 4, 2010
One of the issues we failed to address, and this will be discussed in our methodology section, is the issue of viral marketing and spreading of information, including news through email, which of course students, like everyone else, uses constantly. Including forwarding links to FALSE information, news and gossip. This is one of the reasons that this medium, particularly given the ease with which false news and astroturfing has the potential to create huge societal unrest, riots, swarming, and other societal phenomenon, that used the wrong way or for unethical purposes, is highly dangerous.
Gattiker, U. E. (2001). The Internet as a Diverse Community Cultural, Organizational, and Political Issues. Mahwah, NJ Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved May 4, 2010
Again, because the news and students do not exist in a vacuum, nor does the internet, this book will be used as a resource tool to examine some of the other forces brought to bear on a medium that affects a much broader swath of society, to give some perspective about how students as a demographic are specifically affected within it.
Gormley Jr., W. (1977). How cross-ownership affects news-gathering. Columbia Journalism Review, 16(1), 38-46.
This article primarily discusses the consolidation of traditional media thanks to the relaxation of anti-merger and anti-trust laws in the United States during the last two decades, and its further impact on news as it has migrated online. It further discusses how consumers understand (or more likely do not) that only a few major media conglomerates dictate what people see and hear through a vast spider web of outlets, from traditional to non traditional outlets. This means that a very small amount of information is actually disseminated, despite the proliferation of sources through which it can be consumed. This study will be used to discuss how students understand what news actually is, along with media bias, and what actually constitutes news rather than official propaganda (such as reporters solely relying on government sources than interviewing independent voices or those across the political spectrum).
Hepler, T. (2009). Sustainable Taco Trucks in LAs Foodie Scene. YourDailyThread.com
This article discusses a growing phenomenon in cities, but of course applicable to students and the younger demographic who also lives and goes to school in such communities (as Foodie Trucks are a nationwide phenomenon) of how students respond to information they interpret as news. The interpretation of information as news is something that has not been widely studied as indeed we did not formally differentiate in our own work, an issue we will identify in our methodology section, but also as an issue in understanding how students identify, interpret, retain, and even are able to understand what is news vs. information they can use. Foodie Trucks, for the uninitiated, are specialized roving vans, which sell specialized gourmet products, and advertise their specific time and arrival at a certain time and place to their growing online database of fans, often through social media sites. While this is not news it could certainly be interpreted as such, and as such, we will discuss this phenomenon, since integrated advertising has made its way even into the evening news and certainly social networking arenas. Something that consumers, particularly the demographic we are studying, are not necessarily aware of, or how it affects their behavior. It is also a perfect example, albeit a benign one, of how this kind of mobile technology and social medium can be used to create mass gatherings for all kinds of purposes.
Hoplamazian, G., Feaster, J. (2009). Different news media, different news seekingbehaviors identifying college students patterns of news media use. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-33.
This study shows that college students view news consumption as a non necessary hobby rather than a vital part of every day life, and arent wedded to any particular medium to access it. This would actually suggest that since students are so nonchalant about new in general, that they would turn to the easiest way to access it which is online and through the mobile devices they possess, which further supports our main thesis and will be used to make that point.
Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Sharma, N., Hansen, D. L., Alter, S. (2005). Impact of Popularity Indications on Readers Selective Exposure to Online News. Journal of Broadcasting Electronic Media, 49(3), 296. Retrieved May 4, 2010
This study is very interesting in that it compares news consumption of old media and new media (i.e. news consumed via newspapers and online), and looks at how it is assimilated and even consumed. The conclusion the authors reach is that online news and information is actively filtered because of the technology available, which leads those who rely on online news and information retrieval to be actively selective in what they seek out in terms of news and other information. This also has an impact on a variety of issues that we will discuss, primarily in our methodology section, but also in the section about the lack of information students in general have about the world, the manipulation of the internet in general already by the mainstream players who control it (i.e. Google and Yahoo) not to mention the government, and the growing censorship that exists online, even in the United States, that students, not to mention the population at large are not aware of.
Lariscy, R., Avery, E., Sweetser, K., Howes, P. (2009). An examination of the role of online social media in journalists source mix. Public Relations Review, 35(3), 314-316
This article, based on a survey of over 200 old media journalists discusses how such journalists are not adapting to new media in style, content or approach. Even more shocking, the survey found only 3 of working journalists considered the internet and social media to be consumers most used source for consuming news. Given the fact that one of Barack Obamas main campaign strategies was to outmaneuver the mainstream news by using his own internet sites and email lists to basically create his own news channels via You Tube, Face book, and other social news sites, this is both myopic in the face of a shrinking industry, and dangerous to the point of evisceration of the First Amendment, since if traditional media, which at least still today has some semblance of neutrality and reliability, goes belly up (which they are increasingly doing thanks to lack of profitability see article above) who do the public turn to as the watchdogs of democracy the so called Fourth Estate, in the digital age, when nobody else is watching
Leone, R. (2006, December). Mashup Man An Online Innovator Uses an Ingenious Fusion of Imagery and Databases to Present Information in Exciting New Ways. American Journalism Review, 28, 10. Retrieved May 4, 2010
This article will be used to discuss the new developments in online journalism that use the medium in brand new ways to attract viewership, increase information retention, and use credible sources at the same time the model of the new credible online journalism we have been seeking. We will use this as an example of what is possible in the digital age, and how students can begin to both use the internet in new ways and consume the information they find, not to mention cross check the information they find for credibility.
Lewis, Seth C. (2008).Where young adults intend to get news in five years. Newspaper Research Journal, 29(4), 36-52.
This was one of the most shocking articles we uncovered in our research that was conducted by survey only two years ago. It showed via used of survey, that most college students thought that in five years time they still thought they would consume their news via traditional outlets (i.e. a newspaper). Not only does this bespeak of a lack of critical thinking and analysis in general of those interviewed about their own behavior, but about the world around them. Even campuses use online alert systems in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy to alert students of campus wide threats. Failure to understand this phenomenon, even within Generation Txt, either points to a failure in the methodology used by the study, or some of the stupidest students on the planet who participated in this survey. Failing that, it shows a horrific lack of understanding, generation if not society wide, of the societal impact of instant information consumption and the impact it has psychologically on human behavior, across every demographic. We will discuss this as a growing threat to Democracy, for one, in our paper.
Loundy, M. (2009). Its all about meaty content. News Photographer, 64(2), 18.
The article talks about the consolidation of old and new media, and the attempts of traditional journalists to adapt to a new medium the social web. It will be used to directly contradict the articles that say that the internet and social media is not relevant in how students, or indeed the general population at large is migrating in ever increasing numbers online to consume information of all kinds, including the news, and how this affects their behavior.
Morgan, D. (2008). The end of the shared media experience Advertising Age, 79(11), 30.
This is a bit of a convoluted article that tries to make the point that since people arent consuming news from traditional sources anymore, and migrating online, they arent either retaining the information they consume online, or discussing it with others verbally. This is a completely ridiculous argument to make, since the whole point of social media is to be able to share and forward articles and news to ones friends online and the impact of such information is the same as a conversation. Furthermore, since often this information can be used for say research in a college paper, the argument the author makes about students retention of such information is even more fallacious if not ill informed. We will make adequate use of this lack of understanding of how social media works by a working journalist to show exactly how old media journalists still dont get it.
Nielson, D. (2004). Newspaper readership disconnect at J-School. New York Times.
This study mainly focuses on the general lack of interest in particularly undergraduate students interest in news period. The author argues that students use the internet for purely entertainment purposes and must be forced, particularly in their undergraduate years, to even use the internet to consume news, not to mention points out their appalling lack of knowledge of current events. This reinforces our underlying thesis that students, while they do in fact rely on the internet for information and even news when it catches their attention, have no real understanding or filter in determining fact from fiction, or indeed understanding bias when they see or hear it. Another important social phenomenon in the age of a burgeoning democratic outlet for information, with a largely uninformed pubic, of all ages, with no education or filter to determine what is real or not.
Obaidi, J. A., Lamb-Williams, C., Mordas, V. (2004). The King of All Mediums A Field Study of College Students Use of Mediums for News. International Journal of Instructional Media, 31(3), 239. Retrieved May 4, 2010
This article hits the nail on the head about the issue of media literacy when consuming news online, particularly for students in the growing trend to consume news online. It will be used as our primary source to buttress our arguments about the legitimacy of news and other information found online, and how students (and teachers) can begin addressing the problem of deciphering credible sources of information, from those that are pure fiction.
Panna, J. (2000, September). Im in Online News - Why Cant I Get One of These The Quill, 88, 12. Retrieved May 4, 2010
This interesting article discusses the fight for legitimacy for real online journalists in Washington D.C. to get established press passes and credibility, much less the fight for credibility for the organizations they work for (in this case Jake Tapper when he worked for Salon.com). However what the article fails to address is the inherent bias in even the mainstream news itself, which both this reporter and online zine, both most certainly are, and does not discuss what topics and issues, much less the perspectives they DO NOT COVER, again leaving out the all important issue of media bias. An issue that must be addressed in an age of a supposedly democratizing age of information, when actually the information available to consumers, of whatever age, is not only more difficult to decipher as real and credible or not, but not even available through so-called credible sources because they do not cover it.
Seitz, J. (2008). Its an online world for young people and political
news.Nieman Reports, pp. 10-11.
This article discusses the undeniable trend that we argue is already happening and research supports, that students are migrating in increasing numbers to online journalist and bloggers for consumption of news and information. However, again does not discuss the critical thinking and analysis that is frequently missing and vital to interpret what is real or not when students consume such information, and how such a lack of critical thinking informs their subsequent world views and actions.
Shaw, D. (2008, FebruaryMarch). Wikipedia in the Newsroom While the Line According to Wikipedia Pops Up Occasionally in News Stories, Its Relatively Rare to See the User-Created Online Encyclopedia Cited as a Source. but Some Journalists Find It Very Valuable as a Road Map to Troves of Valuable Information. American Journalism Review, 30, 40. Retrieved May 4, 2010
A good source we will use to bolster our claims about even real journalists uses of questionable sources of information to create the news. If so-called real news cant be trusted, since its own sources of information are not accurate, how can consumers, from college students to grandmothers, even know how to sort out fact from fiction
Steiger, P. (2006). Confronting the dual challenge of print and electronic news. NiemanReports, 60(4), 62-63.
The article discusses the almost real time, 247 news cycle that the internet and mobile devices have transformed the news business into. It also supports our thesis about the increasing numbers of consumers moving to online consumption of news, which is perfect for our paper. What it does not discuss however, is the rise of the internet rumor, which is equally pernicious as real news, and again, how people are equipped, or rather completely unequipped, at any age, to determine fact from fiction, much less how potentially dangerous this is in a broader societal context.
Stempel III, G., Hargrove, T. (2004). Despite Gains, Internet Not Major Player as News Source. Newspaper Research Journal, 25(2), 113-115.
While this article discusses the obvious, that older demographics still havent caught up in terms of consuming their news online in as great a percentage of their demographic as Generation Txt, this is actually an essentially useless piece of research. With the recession creating trends in households (i.e. Generation X and upwards) of getting rid of everything but their broadband and cell phones, and cancelling all subscriptions, this gap in consumption of online news will rapidly disappear even within the next five years. In fact it already has, but nobody has studied it. Again, to make the point we made earlier, with Congress people Twittering each other to move votes on legislation on Capitol Hill, one can hardly argue that the Boomers dont get social online news making or consumption, much less communication. You cant get more influential than THAT.
Stoff, R. (2006, December). Astroturf-Roots Campaign. St. Louis Journalism Review, 36, 12. Retrieved May 4, 2010
Nowhere is the deliberate use of false news manufacturing more prevalent than in the business of astroturfing, which affects everything from selling products to presidents, and even affects the news, and is particularly prevalent on blogs and in social networking arenas, like Face book. This article is important and will be cited and used to give credibility to the dangers of false news, particularly given the targeting of the younger demographics for things like advertising campaigns, and how this overlapped in particular with the involvement of David Axelrod (also nicknamed Axel turf for his use of astroturfing as a business before his involvement in politics) to elect Barack Obama using the exact same techniques.
Sweetser, K. D., Porter, L. V., Chung, D. S., Kim, E. (2008). Credibility and the Use of Blogs among Professionals in the Communication Industry. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 85(1), 169. Retrieved May 4, 2010
This article, written by a working media professional journalist, discusses exactly the issue we raise, and will be used as a source to bolster our claims, that real questions exist about the credibility of independent blogs as sources of news, not to mention the general publics lack of ability, at any age to determine their credibility as sources of information, much less news.
Vincent, R., Basil, M. (1997). College students news gratifications, media use, current events knowledge. Journal of Broadcasting Electronic Media, 41(3), 380.
This is a study that merely shows a trend in college students interest in news as they grow older. However again, this is a limited study, simply because of the limited definition of news. News is information that directly impacts peoples lives. No better example can be used than for example, the rampage at Virginia Tech, and the subsequent nationwide campus installation of campus wide alert systems about security alerts. Those are also news. And every student reacts to those. No matter whether they watch CNN or not. This is why this study as well as traditional understandings and definitions of news and information are fundamentally misunderstood and wrongfully defined, as we ourselves did so ourselves. This will be discussed in greater detail further on in the paper, specifically what can be done better in terms of methodology.
Whitmore, C. (2009) College Campuses Embrace Text Messaging After Virginia Tech Tragedy. eGovernment Resource Centre
Discusses the widespread adoption of college campus messaging services through online student directories in cases of danger, in the aftermath of the massacre of Virgina Tech. Will be used to discuss how students use online news and information selectively, and how they access it. Furthermore, it will also be used to discuss our failures in methodology section.
Weller, M. (2002). Delivering Learning on the Net The Why, What How of Online Education. London Kogan Page. 130. Retrieved May 4, 2010
This book discusses overall online learning, which is just as important in the overall question of how students interpret information, including news, from online sources. This particular chapter discusses the use of online news sources in the use of instruction in classrooms, raising the question, not to mention pointing the finger at professors, for why they are producing so many students who are so profoundly media illiterate, especially online, not to mention have such a lack of critical thinking skills. A vital question to be asked and one we will address when we discuss the societal impacts of what and how students consume, and what they do with that information consumed online.
ZDNet Editor, (2006). Blogs, text, vlogs make an explosion at deaf university. ZDNet.com
This article discusses how the deaf students at the only deaf university in the country, Gaulludet, in Washington DC, used texting and other mobile devices with texting technology in 2006, to organize a successful campus wide student protest and successfully demand and get the universitys first deaf president. This is not only an example of how students can use such technology to organize and create mass movements of their own, which is an ongoing theme of this work, but in this case, will also be used to show how a completely disregarded, largely invisible community (the disabilities community) was able to both overcome their disability, communicate and organize effectively, and create news they could use. This is a perfect case study to show how students also create filters in the news they use online. Sadly it is also one of the most telling cases of how discriminatory the current President is towards disability issues as well as adaptive technology. This protest occurred before Obama even announced his campaign. He didnt even hire a single protest leader to be a member of either his campaign or his White House staff. Much less has moved on any disability issue to date. An issue that is not covered by the mainstream news except when the President makes fun of retards on national TV. This is another source article for discussing bias not only in the mainstream news, but by a man who ran successfully for office by outrunning it, and setting up, in effect, the Barack Obama news channel using largely alternative internet outlets to do it.
Wise, K., Bolls, P. D., Schaefer, S. R. (2008). Choosing and Reading Online News How Available Choice Affects Cognitive Processing. Journal of Broadcasting Electronic Media, 52(1), 69. Retrieved May 4, 2010
This article, based on the findings of an academic survey, discusses and will be used in our study to discuss the cognitive gap issue that continues to be an ongoing topic of discussion and dissention about students (or any other demographics) ability to process information, specifically in this case, the news, they consume online. The article argues that the interactivity of websites, plus the ability to review information multiple times, eliminates that gap. Thus this will be used to counter arguments that online consumption of news is both inconsequential and students, in particular, are not affected by what they hear and see online (i.e. through I-casts).
Research Methods
Along with the literature and research that is still ongoing, we also decided to conduct a live survey of college students to see if we could determine any trends in their behavior from real live survey results. We decided to use Face book as a way of reaching the maximum amount of people in our targeted demographic, as it is a social networking site that is extremely popular, and also used by many college students to access the news. It is also tied into, and accessible to many mobile devices, such as Twitter, so we thought that this would be an ideal place to put the survey for maximum response. We came up with a list of questions (the list is included in the results) that tried to gauge how students interacted with the different forms of media available (old and new), what their consumption habits were, how they had heard about various recent events, both news and of a more gossipy, entertainment kind of nature, and through what kind of venue they had heard about them, again to try and establish some kind of connection between the medium and the message. To be specific, is news channeled differently than entertainment, are younger students more drawn to Twitter and Facebook for news or entertainment information, etc
Unfortunately, our questions, while we thought would bring in the answers to our questions, were inconclusive. The only thing we found out, for example about viewing habits and information, was that people found out about Ellen Degeneres election to be an American Idol judge via television. Her sexuality is not an issue to viewers. Hardly an earth shattering revelation and says nothing about patterns or consumption of students consumption of news online. The fact that Michael Jacksons death was not important is more of a generational issue, and also partly racial bias we believe. Students do not understand what a force he was and why he was important. The Playboy story was so under the radar, that this is a niche market question that wouldnt be of interest to the average student to begin, and certainly not to a straight or lesbian female audience, so we effectively eliminated half our audience of survey takers right there with that question, so this was a bad choice on our part for just that reason alone. Not to mention the average student (male and female) doesnt consume porn in magazines anymore anyway. They go straight online for their porn these days, as they have done for over fifteen years. Its one of the first niche markets to go online. We were pretty stupid on the Tiger Woods issue too, and frankly its also, in hindsight a bit racist black manwhite woman kind of thing. We regret including that question too (John Edwards would have been a better choice, particularly since he was a former presidential candidate, a more newsy angle and story, however tawdry, and again, what is the demographic for golf). Not to mention racial bias is one of the issues we wanted to explore, just not that way.
So ultimately we think that our tepid response may have come from the fact that we probably asked the wrong questions, but again that is for the analysis of our methodology section. Than again, we did learn a couple of interesting things.
We analyzed our data in the traditional way. We put it into a traditional SPSS Excel data sheet and did various analyses on it, which is included herein. No real outstanding patterns emerged. We did not for example, find that under 18 year olds preferred Twitter over text capable cell phones, or ABC over Salon.com. We failed to ask questions about bias, at least intentionally, as discussed, so that was not even a factor in our study, which was a major failing. But the data that we did collect shows that despite the popularity of online consumption of media, TV is still a strong force and will be for some time. Its just that media is dispersed, as are consumers media consumption habits.
But that could be said of any demographic. That did surprise us, since we thought that students would be far more likely to read their news online than they said they did in survey responses. And we think there might be some lying going on that distorts that finding, since there was other distortion in the study findings that was obvious. But overall, our questions were meant to segment an audience of college students (both undergraduate and graduate students) and figure out how they consumed information they considered news.
Statistically, as you will see, there is no trend that jumps out at you, other than the ones we have identified and those are not earth shattering. Common strategies were used to collect and analyze data, including automatic data crunching that is far more efficient than human beings, like Excel sheets and comparisons, not to mention automatic conversions to charts. And then of course logical extrapolation was made of the data we crunched as we have mentioned and will continue to do.
As you will see, apart from a few titillating tidbits, the findings really dont tell us anything.
In fact, the MOST interesting thing about our findings was that people seemed to DOUBLE REPORT (at least) what kind of traditional media they used. Not to mention Face book. Why Were there additional participants who just answered those questions and left the others blank Or was there some weird system bug that created the problem Or something else going on. We are not sure. But it is by far the strangest statistical, not to mention raw data finding of the study, particularly since the survey was posted on Face book, the most popular social online medium of choice for our demographic, who one would expect would not use these traditional media to begin with, and certainly not double report their usage of the same on a survey about their consumption of it in this medium.
Survey Results and Findings
The following are the results of our survey, posted on Face book, and garnering approximately 350 responses. We have broken down the results here as far as we can. However to the extent that we garnered some anomalies in responses, we will list them here, and show the results in the appendices. It appears that in particular, some participants responded to questions about what mediums they watched twice. At least. As you will see in the appendices. Which is even more interesting because at least in the initial part of the survey, the data seems to be accurate.
Analysis of Survey ResponsesUse TwitterYesNoTotal87263350Use Face bookYesNoTotal3491350Watch TelevisionYesNoTotal33317350Read Newspaper (OnlinePrint)YesNoTotal221129350 Receive Breaking News From Tweets Per Week0-1031411-202021-30731 or more9
Get Breaking News From Face book Per Week
0-522211-15206-104616 or more26
How Many Hours of TV Do You Watch Weekly
0-32314-7818-102511 or more13
Kinds of Information Absorbed Via What Medium
How Did You Hear About the Earthquake in HaitiMixed Responses from personal friends to online sources. No identifiable trend
How Did You Hear about the Tiger Woods ScandalMixed Responses from personal friends to online sources. No identifiable trendHow Did You Hear About Michael Jacksons DeathMixed Responses from personal friends to online sources. No identifiable trendHow Did You Hear About the Jersey Shore IncidentMixed Responses from personal friends to online sources. No identifiable trendMost respondents had not heard about it.
Sources of NewsI use Twitter as my main source of news1309234339416535I use Facebook as my primary news sourceI use Television as my primary news sourceI use newspapers as my primary news sourcethese three questions in graph form in the appendicesYears in College of Survey ParticipantsFreshmen30Sophomores38Juniors57Seniors153Graduate Students72Age of Survey Participants18 or under23193320422112022 or over132
Results and Discussion
Findings
There do not appear to be any statistical correlations here, in terms of age and technology used except perhaps that younger people use Face book and that older students seem to use it more than younger ones, at least those who participated in our survey. But that is too far a sampling to make such a generalization. And in general not even true of the overall demographic who uses Face book. And college students still watch a lot of television. But certainly DO NOT get their news there. There is more who are getting it from Face book.
The fact that the respondents could tell us that they knew that Ellen DeGeneres had been chosen as a judge for American Idol from watching TV, but couldnt identify where they heard about the Haitian crisis is interesting and does expose that American students are NOT watching mainstream news on TV. Which begs the question, what do they consider news and where are they getting it from Again, it appears they are getting it from Face book, as the single most identifiable source in our study. This is even more relevant and supports our theoretical fears and discussions as supported in the literature review, that we are dealing with a potentially very dangerous phenomenon that can be used to manipulate an unsuspecting and very easy to influence generation of people who are not media literate and do not understand the implications, much less the blurring of information, advertising, propaganda, and real news.
It is as if we are setting ourselves up for the next 1938 scenario, created by Orson Welles, when as a prank he read a scene from H.G. Welles classic, The War of The Worlds from CBS headquarters in New York, presented as real news, where he literally announced that Martians were invading the earth on a new fangled device called radio. The fact that he caused a panic of epic proportions in the nations most sophisticated city, not to mention far beyond its borders, has already happened with this new technology. Just not at that level.
Yet.
This is ultimately the most important part of our study, and what we are trying to figure out the connections to. How to place limits on, educate, and figure out patterns of consumption, so we can help educate and use this awesome power for good, rather than have it be manipulated and used against us, as citizens. Because the power of it, used the wrong way, is the ultimate destroyer of Democracy, free speech and debate.
In addition to discussing some of these broader themes in the final report, we will also discuss some of the more interesting case studies where this kind of technology has in fact started to be used this way both for good and for bad. Including the student protest at Gaulludet University, which is even more interesting because they used the technology to overcome both their disability, and lead a successful campus protest at the same time a major political victory that has been ignored by Barack Obama who used the same tactics less than a year later but has completely ignored this community and their plight, to the extent he hasnt even visited their campus, which is less than five miles from the White House.
Limitations and Conclusions
While there are many that we have already touched on, these are the most basic and fundamental that skewed and fundamentally limited our study and of course the results we got back.
We probably should have used a different medium than Face book, just because of the growing privacy, if not other concerns of the social medium itself. While yes it is convenient, there are other ways to gather information.
We should have asked questions about socioeconomic demographics, including gender, disability, and race. Cyberspace is a very biased place, and the so-called digital divide is real. We missed a real opportunity here to understand the impact, for example, of the lack of use of adaptive technology by most websites on the disability community (approximately 20 of this country). And while it would be easy to generalize about Ellen DeGeneres and TV watching, one also must remember that the gay community was in addition to the porn industry, one of the FIRST online niches to exploit the internet as a niche. Almost twenty years ago. So there is almost a tripling effect there, because people who are watching television for entertainment are also avid users of Face book and Twitter, which also promote entertainment and mainstream programming. And of course are tied into cyberspace as a whole.
We double asked one question. That was our one major administrative mistake.
We didnt ask students about perceptions of bias, and what kind of bias, exists in information they hear, what kind of biases THEY think they have, and what kind of bias exists either from mainstream or alternative sites. Furthermore we didnt ask how they sort out fact from fiction, and the kind of critical thinking they use to do so. For example if someone cries fire in the middle of a crowded classroom, what does a student do Or more to the point, what does a student do if there is a campus wide alert that there is a student with a gun on the loose, such as the case at Virginia Tech
We failed to ask where students get their news, assuming that they would watch or go to traditional sources of information for it. It became clear that the only real identifiable place they seem to go is a place NOT designed as a news site Face book. Which means they are getting their news from highly questionable sources. That is exactly what we were afraid of. Despite their claims that they read news online and off regularly. So somebody needs to find out where they are going for such news to gain clarity into what they are really hearing and listening to and if it is accurate, unbiased, or tabloid trash. News by osmosis does not lead to a very educated population, of any age. Nor does it work.
We failed to ask what kind of mobile device people used to consume their online media on.
We asked no questions about things like privacy online, FISA, and other issues of current and newsworthy concern, directly related to news consumption online. That was another mistake on our part since it is directly related to both the subject of the study and how we conducted it.
We asked no questions about Googles apparent monopolistic moves, and if students considered their position as the Presidents IT advisers, with high ranking posts in government for ex employees of the company, to be a conflict of interest that posed a threat to such issues described in question 7.
We did not ask how study participants interaction with technology differed from that of their parents or grandparents, and how, or if, they had any chance to bond as a family over technology. It is said that cyberspace is an isolating development for human kind. It doesnt have to be. Teaching grandma how to use her email so she can keep up with her friends is one of the ways to encourage intergenerational bonding.
We did not ask if students were frustrated with their own teachers lack of understanding of the internet and its uses. That would have generated some interesting responses that educators need to hear.
Obviously, we were a bit overwhelmed in preparing the study. And made a few avoidable mistakes. We asked one question twice. And again, for some reason there was double reporting (at least) which we will show in the appendices that come straight from the raw data, which we dont know what was caused by. It could have been caused by our fault (which we highly doubt since this is after all raw data, not our manipulation of it) or the fault of respondents but clearly this is a fault in the study and skewed results. But only in one part of them, so our findings are not completely irrelevant.
Conclusion
Obviously this subject is a huge one, and we bit off a tiny chunk of it. The work to be done in understanding how consumers of all ages will interact with social online media of all kinds is just at the beginning. But the reason we chose news is very important because it is a mark of several things. In particular we wanted to determine if we could see if students were capable of critical thinking, were in fact plugging in to current events, and not zoning out, and if we could capture an accurate picture of what and where they were going to get their information, particularly that they characterized as news, specifically information to be trusted.
The information gathered here, and our final report, will certainly help other researchers both guide their own study plans, questions, surveys, and research, by what we have identified as our failings, but what we see as the potential issues on the horizon.
We hope at least that is our contribution. We still have a lot of work to do. But in the end, that is our goal. Cyberspace, to paraphrase Joseph Campbell is in a way the collective unconsciousness of human kind. We believe that people need to be a bit more aware of its potential for good and for bad. And ultimately that is the purpose and goal behind the undertaking of this study and final report.
We hope it contributes in some small way to that emerging understanding and body of work.
Appendices
We have listed the skewed answers we got to the questionnaire on Face book. While shown here in graph form for greater ease of understanding and on the eyes, it is merely a conversion in Excel data. No manual manipulation of data to deliberately skew results has taken place at all.
The first interesting graph is the responses we got to Question 16. As you can see, the responses were far greater than the total sum of people even involved in the survey. About double in fact.
Interestingly, the same is true, when it came to exactly the same question except for newspapers.
And while its out of order, we thought the results were worth leaving until last because they were so interesting and skewed this is the response we got when we asked about respondents viewing habits of good old TV. Four times as many respondents answered the question as even participated in the survey, which either means that there was a flaw in our documentation and reporting, or something else was going on.
However, since there is no similar pattern in the other two mediums, or answers above, we believe that something is very wrong here. And that perhaps our survey was even deliberately tampered with. This is too strange to be entirely accidental. And college students are not THAT tech stupid. Thats more their parents department.
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