The negatives of new media

New media may be a great and entertaining tool for people in the world today, but we must be careful not to bow at the altar of new media.

There are certain negative aspects of new media that must be addressed.

The negatives of new media:

-New media is very free from censorship and is anonymous in many ways, so the quality of the information presented on new media websites is unknown. Not only is it possible for my little brother to post online about politics, but the people posting information might be lying. Whether they are lying for strategic reasons, or just out of jest, the information picked up on twitter can be totally false. In fact the "people" posting the content might be fake.




-There are times when information can be very dangerous, especially if the truth is not something that should be shared with the public. If the "truth" will put people in harms way, it should not be totally withheld, but a strategy of informing the public is usually necessary. Panic is not an easy thing to contain once it has fully developed. This can be anything from someones sexual preferences, to top secret government plans.







-The fact that not everyone is an expert on what they know is an important negative aspect of new media. I may be able to tell you what I see happening in front of me, but usually people are not experts at articulating and explaining why they see what they see. Old media outlets usually hire people with expertise to report on subjects that require a thorough understanding of the subject. In this way, information that might be "true" can be understood in the wrong way by people with no knowledge of the news story.

- New media does not value scholarly writing as much as old media does. Grammar and style mistakes are overlooked in new media. In newspapers, journalists and editors pride themselves on their ability to write well technically and they pride themselves on writing interesting articles.