19/12/16 - How TV news failed to keep up in 2016 (30)

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/dec/19/how-tv-news-failed-to-keep-up-in-2016

This article is mainly talking about the impact in which social media has had on the news. Nowadays, people are more likely to be using social media for their sources of news rather than going onto the TV for the news. The writer also discuss how news on TV is harder to come across rather than on social media sites since on the social media sites, it will be what the readers would find appealing to them and not having to wait for the TV news presenter to get onto the news which may fascinate the audience. In addition, he also gives the facts about how the majority of the teenagers would use the social media sites and how Oxford Students would use the TV news to research the pros and cons between each platform. In addition, linking back to this, the writer talks about how social media has got the edge since it is a much more easier and quicker service as the TV news is much more harder to be focused on.

• Of the 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 28% cited social media as their main news source, compared with 24% for TV.
• TV news audiences are in freefall (in the UK, they’ve declined by 3% to 4% a year on average since 2012).
• t was not until a month after the country voted for Brexit that the BBC political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, showed – in her documentary Brexit: The Battle for Britain – that the leave campaign’s claim that £350m a week of British taxpayers’ money went to Brussels was a house of cards that a single puff would flatten.

In my opinion, I believe in what the writer is saying about how the social media sites are the new way and oncoming way in which the audience will want to receive their news. The reason for this is simply because of the fact it is much more easier than having to go onto the TV since your phone or tablet will always be right in front of you. However, I still believe that TV news is extremely important since this is something which keeps the reliable journalists at their jobs and without them, there would hardly be any news which will be covered and if there wasn't any journalists, then this would be the stories about 'fake news' even more popular than it is now. Therefore, I believe that the audience whom only read their news online (on social media sites) should still make the effort to go onto the TV and watch the broadcast news 'once in a while'.