ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY – ENTRY 3

  • Pentina, I, Tarafdar, M 2014, ‘From “information” to “knowing”: Exploring the role of social media in contemporary news consumption’, Computers in Human Behaviour, vol. 35, pp. 211-223

This study/report provides an insight into the role Social Media currently plays in the consumption of news. It is known that the amount of content channels and sources continues to grow through the facilitation of platforms such as Facebook, but a few startling figures in this study showed just how much our exposure to news content has increased. As Pentina and Tarafdar explain “A single Sunday edition of The New York Times today contains more information than typical 19th-century citizens faced in their lifetime and more new information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the last 5000” (2014). 

This continuous influx of content can potentially lead to something called ‘information overload’. This is when “information-processing demands on the individual exceed their capacity to process the information” (2014). It relates to a similar study conducted by Ran et. al on perceived and factual political knowledge. 

The report acknowledges that social media has effects on our perception of news, that may seem ‘paradoxical’ (Pentina and Tarafdar, 2014). With social media comes the ability to immediately communicate and discuss topics at ease with many people. But as some research has shown, the algorithms embedded in Facebook for example, has the tendency to display content confirming preexisting beliefs, thus limiting exposure to challenging ideas (Pentina and Tarafder, 2014). This is called an ‘information bubble’. 

The report continues by outlining a study conducted by Pentina and Tarafdar which provides an interesting insight into the ways people consume news. Although we are not necessarily concerned with the coping mechanisms of ‘information overload’, it helps in providing some background for our research. It at least provides statistical and anecdotal evidence to establish historical grounding: 

“Social media enable these strategies by providing timely and relevant information that is socially curated by like-minded network participants. However, social media also complicate the news stimuli screening process by contributing to information overload due to their exposure to unverified, anonymous and overwhelmingly subjective sources of news.” (Pentina and Tarafdar, 2014).

Other useful info:

Categorically, coming across news through social media can be classified as passive, a somewhat stumbling approach to consuming. The opposite of this is the active approach of searching for stories with a general theme in mind. 

Citizen Journalism: The idea that access to social media allows regular people to express and broadcast ideas and opinions with ease. 

– Gabe

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