Social Media...Does it increase or decrease the quality of news and information available to citizens?

I believe social media has increased the amount of news and information one can find on the internet.  Many people now have the opportunity to become their own publisher, author, and editor of information they wish to share with the general public.  With Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Wiki, etc. people can hear about breaking news on a television station, and then go and elaborate on the story informing those who may not have heard about it yet.  Although social media does increase the amount of information out there, it also decreases its quality and credibility.  Some people tend to exaggerate when they hear something, thus making something small seem like it’s something big. In other words social media tends to have a biased point of view, which in return results in a misrepresentation of the actual problem.  

 Social media can be described as a cheap way that has brought fundamental changes in the way we communicate news and information to each other. With the variety of social media sites available people today want to be able to voice their opinions on matters they believe in.  Nobody listens to just one source of information anymore.  With TV stations, newspapers, blogs, podcasts, pictures, etc. there are so many places for one to follow up news information with.  It’s like the experts say “75% of online news consumers say they get news forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites and 52% say they share links to news with others via those means.”  Many credited news publishers like CNN, CBS, Washington Post, etc. are turning to YouTube and podcasts to advertise their information and allow the public to comment since this is the top trend right now.  It is also said that the media published by citizens include groundbreaking news, stories, pictures, and information that is sometimes neglected or forgotten by mainstream media organizations.  Many media companies are also allowing their viewers to participate and have a say in what news is shown.  For example CNN created iReport which allows citizens to send stories, videos, and photos of breaking new wherever they are.

This then goes to show that social media does increase the amount of information available to citizens since large well know companies are jumping on board to accommodate its viewers.