Signal Summer 2019 Newsletter

www.alliancecom.net 11 get news from those sources, but the percentage of users doing so rose less during the study period than that of the other three. The site that reflects the greatest percentage of users getting news there is Facebook, with 45 percent of users doing so. Added News Features One reason Twitter shows up as a source where news consumption is growing is that it has recently changed the way content appears to make news stories more visible. In early 2018, according to Forbes , “Twitter began putting breaking news tweets at the top of user timelines in a bid to increase engagement…” Also, users have been seeing “more news links in general.” 2 In addition, Twitter displays live news broadcasts next to the timeline. The Trends feature also includes current news stories. The Moments feature curates tweets from news outlets and those from individuals around a specific news event, and users can tweet about their experiences related to political, human interest, and weather-related events, and more. For example, during the Parkland, Fla. school shooting in 2018, students tweeted about what they were witness- ing in the moment. While citizens may not always follow journalistic standards, their input can still contribute a valuable perspective about a particular story. Follow Breaking News There are several ways to follow news on Twitter: 1. Scroll through your timeline, watch- ing for news stories. From there, you can click through to read a story in full. You can participate in spreading a news story by retweeting it for your followers to see or tweeting a response. 2. You can be more proactive in finding news by searching for a hashtag or by following an account that’s tweeting regularly about a particular story. 3. You can also find or search for trends, which are tailored to your location, interests, and who you follow. Trends are listed along with your timeline on the site or in the trends section of the Explore tab on the mobile app. When you choose a trend, you’ll see search results based on tweets that include the phrase or hashtag corre- sponding with the topic you selected. You can join the conversation by posting your own tweet that includes that phrase or hashtag. False News Travels Fast The journal Science recently com- pleted a study that showed false news (otherwise known as fake news) on Twitter reaches more people more quickly than true news. The study showed it took true stories six times as long to reach the same number of people. According to a Vox article analyzing the study, researchers concluded, “Falsehood diffused signifi- cantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information.” 3 The study involved tracking stories from 2006 to 2017 known in retro- spect to be either true or false. The researchers were able to track the stories backward to see where they originated. “The spread of the false stories was compared to that of true stories that the fact-checking verified,” the Vox article states. One reason cited by the researchers for this phenomenon is that false stories tend to be more sensational and illicit strong emotions, precisely the type of stories that get the most attention on social media generally. 1 Source: http://www.journalism.org/2017/09/07/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2017/ 2 Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paularmstrongtech/2018/04/30why-youre-about-to-get-a-lot-more-news-on-twitter/ #1135c5606613 1 Source: https://www.vox.com/science- and-health/2018/3/8/17085928/ fake-news-study-mit-science FAST FACT: In 2009 a photo posted to Twitter broke the news of a US Airways flight that crashed on the Hudson River. Source: https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/ twitter-stats-and-statistics/