Why is social media good or bad for our society?

[Tom B]

Social media allows society's unfiltered opinions to be broadcast.

Traditional media, like news shows, news papers, and magazines, are filtered opinions. The problem is that all media outlets are corporations, and the goal of the corporations are to serve their shareholders. Many large corporations, such as drug companies, weapons companies, and food companies, hold shares and influence over the news media.

In addition, a news station will be hesitant to run a news story on a large advertiser as it will negatively affect their earnings. As such, many stories are slanted towards creating an opinion that will benefit the share holders wealth rather than produce honest, factual stories. This is why certain news stations have specific views on news items. Below is an example of Fox news killing a story on Monsanto and a link to cancer because they didn't want to lose advertising money. All news stations do this.

The Internet allows for unfiltered opinion to be spread. People can produce a report without having to worry about being sued. However, the adverse reaction is that people don't trust what is on the Internet as much because the stories are not vetted for accuracy.

So the problem with receiving information from any sort of media, whether it be traditional or social, is that you will need to determine whether or not the person is lying to you. This comes from having a strong set of principles and beliefs as to what you feel is wrong and right. Also, the media uses certain strategies to 'sell' a story. You can google 'After the Ball' to find an article that details the steps taken to change perception of the masses.