News isn’t news if it doesn’t reach anyone. But they are becoming less and less important on social media. For users this means: chaos.
Where do you read your news? Probably not in the newspaper, let’s be honest. So online. Maybe you google topics if they particularly interest you. Or you come across them while scrolling on Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) or Facebook. This is practical for you: the news that particularly interests you reaches you where you already spend time.
That could change. Actually, it’s been changing for a while. Less and less news can reach you on social media because the platforms actively prevent the spread of news and make it more difficult to monetize news. For you this is one thing above all else: annoying. You can find out here how you can keep perspective despite fake news and chaos.
The news business is not worth it on social media
Broadly speaking, there are two major sources of money for most online media. Either readers have to pay for articles directly or through a subscription. Or – as with us – advertising is placed on the site, which then indirectly refinances the articles. Social media is not directly included in this calculation.
Nevertheless, you were able to consume news on social media for a long time. Linked articles on Facebook and Twitter brought readers to the pages, making it worthwhile for media companies to distribute the content there. Earlier. Today article headings on X no longer appear. On Facebook, news with links seems less and less visible, and the US magazine new Yorker writes: “It’s clear that promoting news is no longer the goal of Meta’s platforms.”
On Instagram and TikTok, links, from which most news lives, were loud New York Times Never particularly relevant anyway. Be honest, how often do you click on link-in-bios in everyday life? There’s a reason that daily News, zdftoday and Wireless have more Instagram followers than FAZ, Mirror or World: The public broadcasters do not have to finance themselves directly. Everyone else does and that’s difficult to do on Instagram.
More on the subject: What actually happens to the brain when you delete social media? We spoke to returnees.
News is much more than just a business
A short excursion into media studies reveals that news is not just there to make money for large and small media companies. News is an important tool for the population to form an independent opinion. A democracy cannot function without free news. It is therefore important that the media not only obtain these, but also disseminate them.
In short: media provides news so you know what’s going on. The broader the media landscape, the more diverse the reporting and opinion-forming. However, a lack of monetization is increasingly thinning out the news offering on social media.
Where news is missing, the debate becomes more chaotic
The result of a lack of news on social media is observed new Yorker Exemplary of the Israel War. “Opinions seem to be better received than direct documentation,” it says. Users continue to complain about one-sided news feeds. The conclusion: “A chaotic and unsafe atmosphere”. So pretty much what you would expect from a place where news is missing.
You can best judge for yourself whether social media has become a more chaotic place with less news and lacks message clarity. At least that’s what the theory suggests. Who will win in this calculation remains questionable. It’s not us. You probably don’t either.
To cheer you up: Prove that news can also be funny these 25 inexplicable news that we can’t forget.
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