‘I’m not sure what to trust’: a student navigates the news in the age of social media
With more people getting their news online than on TV, Ben Herd, 20, records his experience of following current affairs. An Ofcom report this week marked a tipping point: more people now get their news online than on TV.
The Guardian asked Ben Herd, a 20-year-old currently at university, to keep a diary for a couple of days of how he was following news stories and current affairs.
This is a pivotal moment in history and Ben is just an example of young people and his experience of a student navigates the news in the age of social media is not unique.
A student navigates the news in the age of social media.
Like most students he gets most of his news from social media. But is that a trustable source of news, even Tiktok, which has a rigorous policing policy does not have any way monitoring or verifying news. Most platforms are being forced to combat ‘hate speech’ but none of them verify news.
If we take X/Twitter as an example, which claims be ‘an independent news source‘ it is riddled with extremism and unverified posts alongside ‘paid agents’ from companies working on news disinformation.
‘I’m not sure what to trust’
Elon Musk has installed a feature to add notes on the platform, however that doesn’t change verify the news it is a tool that any users can use to dispute claims made on the platform.
That does not necessarily lead to the truth, it does however allow bots and agents to over power the algorithm to stop sharing ‘unpreferred’ news.
And who is to stop a South African megalomaniac like Elon Musk, whose allegiance currently stands with Donald Trump and Israel.
So it is no surprise when a student claims ‘I’m not sure what to trust’: