Research Progress II

I have finally decided on my topic for the final paper for the ICT course! (all the credit goes to  Prof. Gorski!)

I will be exploring the topic: "What qualifies as news (to younger generations)?"

So far, I am still in the process of navigating various research articles.

For one of my subtopics, 'Does technology (i.e. social media, mobile phones) expand or narrow people's interest?' a number of scholars have produced very insightful research articles. I am interested in this topic because it opens up a door to the hot topics surrounding new technologies. For instance, many people consider digital technology as a "tool" that can democratize the learning environment by making information accessible. Some people go even further to say that new technology such as smartphones and social media will "ameliorate social ills" (Bruce 1996).

Twitter is one of the most popular social media people use to get news

Indeed, social media has created opportunities for people to actively participate in news creation and distribution process, hence weakening the gatekeeping function of traditional journalism (Hermida 2010). More people can speak up their opinion, stay updated with current events and find new information easily and at a low cost.

But it is this participatory feature that makes people question whether social media actually contributes to closing the knowledge gap. Because at the end of the day, a lot of news the users are exposed to are shared by their friends or family (Bode 2016). You get news from people in your social circle and start to share more ideas, attitudes and political views with them, which can lead to replicating the segregation of various social circles in the real world. This convinces some people that the in-group vs. out-group issue also exists in the virtual space and that digital technologies only aggravate the social division in the real world.

For those not familiar with the debate over ingroup vs. outgroup:

So.... my game plan for now is to read even more (!)  about research articles that are available. Instead of trying to find a definite answer, I want to explore different research, arguments and theories to get a sense of the history, context and social implications of the debate. Let's see how my thought process has developed next week!




References:

Bode, L. (2015, June 26). Political News in the News Feed: Learning Politics from Social Media. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15205436.2015.1045149.

Bruce, Bertram C. (1996, Fall). Technology as social practice. Educational Foundations, 10(4), 51-58. [ISSN 1047-8248] https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/13369/technology_as_socia l_practice.pdf?sequence=2