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The Greyhound

How Social Media Has Changed News Coverage

How Social Media Has Changed News Coverage

According to Gregg Micklos, the operations and production manager at DC News Now, only 16 percent of adults today say they have a lot of confidence in news coverage. DC News Now is an independent broadcast news station and a CW Network affiliate that provides over 67 hours of local news coverage a week.

Micklos said, “So for anyone who wants to be a reporter or in the business, people automatically don’t trust what you’re doing.”

Micklos discussed how news writing and reporting have changed over the years, as he has worked in the news industry for about 25 years at six different news stations. Throughout Micklos’ career, he has worked as a news director, an assignment editor, and a production manager. 

Micklos said the biggest challenge in news coverage is trust. For example, News Max, a conservative organization, got in trouble in 2020 for putting out misinformation about voting machines during the 2020 presidential election. This resulted in the voting machine company suing the organization for spreading false information about their company allegedly rigging the votes. 

Nowadays with social media playing a crucial role in news coverage, news stations and platforms are putting out headlines before they have researched the whole story. 

Micklos said, “Reporters can no longer wait to break a story because 24/7 cable programs and social media platforms basically break stories right away.” Although it is necessary for these news outlets to break stories, this leads to misinformation being spread and distrust amongst viewers and readers. Moreover, social media has allowed viewers to remain in their bias. 

Micklos said, “We’ve become so partisan right now, and social media and cable are a lot to blame for that.” Micklos explained that it is hard to figure out how to change this. 

“You have to teach people the difference between opinion news and objective news,” he said. “You alos have to teach people that there is a difference between partisan, non objective news and objective news.”

As social media continues to grow and change how news is digested, consuming news, especially all sectors and sides of news, seems to be the most important thing for consumers to do.

“It’s just the world we live in now, it’s the 24-hour news cycle,” Micklos said. “It never stops. It’s never going to slow down, It’s probably only going to increase because more and more things will pop up.”

Featured Image Courtesy of Gregg Micklos

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How Social Media Has Changed News Coverage