Can social media sites be considered reliable sources of information?
Nothing concrete can be said about social media sites and fake news on it.
Read all the social media, its up to you to pick the most reliable source.
Social media are helping to disseminate the news very fast, but some times their news authenticity is questionable.
Yes, in majority of cases (more than 90% ) it is reliable one except their presentations which some times misguiding. But definitely about 10 % of the news/ information on social media are exaggerated and we should apply certain logic before believing it. But it is very very difficult to separates such one as these are also connected with big peoples and celebrities who blindly follow without applying their mind and intelligence. in fact we are strong followers of few people and easily start following what they say without understanding and applying their mind. Many a time even after knowing that this is right / wrong we commit blunder.
My advise is NO. Social media is more of comedy and rumour carrier platform and not to be taken serious.
The uncertainty about data messages exchange or information sources belonging to social media cannot be ignored. However, much of the information we need today are documented in social media web sites. I think the reliability depends on the prestige and quality associated with the targeted sites and the individuals who are the originator of the information. Our social tools like Facebook and Tweeter are platforms in modern world by which we find a way to satisfy our social selves. Unfortunately, they are not regarded as an improvement to modern society, but as a challenge to it.
depend on who is posting the news, some official accounts post the news with their official website links are reliable
You have to spend to much time to test if a message or judgement in social media is right or problematical or fake. No, use your time to get better information elsewhere, for instance RG is a better choice, also in questions of everyday life.
HEIN
We have developed a semantic big data analytics tool to check on topics but - more importantly - on the emotions expressed in Tweets, posts ect and have matched it with the results of a 1 year survey with 2000 interviews - the results are telling: We have 70 per cent same results, in 20 per cent we got more/deeper insights and only 10 per cent are disputable. This hints towards a great reliability of social media contributions if the number is great enough
It depends on what your question is. If you are seeking information about opinions that are held or the way people use social media then it may be a valid source. But generally any source that is not peer reviewed can only give you an opinion. Having said that you are in a position to evaluate for yourself the validity of an argument and the reliability of supporting evidence.
Its irrational to assume a news platform by its own self can be "trusted" as a news source. Social media is simply the "tool". News whether fake or otherwise is generated by people who can either tell lies or not.
It really depends on which social media sites you plan to use (some sites may be considered far more reliable than others). And, most importantly, the nature of the information you want to collect.
It depends upon what you define as reliable. I doubt that a social media site can be reliable if you always expect to find true information on it. A social media site can be reliable if you expect only real, not always true opinions from the users of a social media site. You can define a social media site as reliable if you extract a group of reliable users that publish true information on a social media site. (You must verify these users yourself).
Anyhow, I would always work with probabilistic measures if I fetch information from a social media site because this information can be untrue. I mean unreliable.
Information needs to be verified. In mainstream media, the journalists usually verify the information and as such it is largely reliable. However, in social media sites, individuals write without bothering to verify; that is why they are a major source of fake news. In my opinion therefore, it would be disastrous to hold social media as a source of any reliable information. This is not to say that all the information is false, but the percentage of reliability is very low and as such social media information should always be held with lots of skepticism.
information on social media is posted by a variety of sources. Not all are reliable and/or verify the information they post. We have to differentiate between established media brands and journalists on the one side and other communicators and prosumers on the other side who may not follow ethical guidelines and principles of fact checking. You cannot generalize but I would agree with Prof. Mwangi that social media information should always be taken with a grain of salt
Sources credibility, reliability and checks on this new mode is always a big issue all where, no national and international body is on check for sources. Better if avoided.
It is simply not worth it to look at social media for information. The enormous amount of time it would take to verify the veracity of information posted on social media can sometimes make it not worthwhile. It is far better to go directly to reliable sources of information. Opinions are often disguised as facts and there is nobody to police the information out there in the social media.
Despite everything being said about the Social Media actually, from a certain perspective it can be considered as a source of information. Whatever type of information people put on social media, it is for purpose. Fake news just like more truthful news each have a purpose in its own.. Any news posted there definitely attract your attention to the subject in question but one has to look into other sources as well to confirm the veracity of what's being said there. To everything there are two sides to the story and it applies to the information posted on social media as well.
The level of reliability and validity of such information may be questioned. In my own opinion, you may further search for concrete sources based on the ones gotten from social media.
Information from both social and traditional media is not reliable since its not peer reviewed. However, they provide a good starting point for one to understand issues affecting our society in this digital world.
Social media is a good platform for airing your views. However, you have to use your own judgement to assess the veracity of information shared through such media!.
absolutely not, they are a great deal of noise and miss information. always go to the credible source.
Very interesting question written in a social media (LinkedIn). Any body who answers "not at all" says that his or her point of view cannot be reliable… This self reflecting question ("mise en abime" is the french expression) shows the problems of social media. Like tongue of which Esope said it was the best and the worst thing.
Nevertheless, we can have the capability to discriminate and to analyse the origin of different information. And also we could participate to the improvement of social media. First rule: to answer slowly and after reflexion, if necessary. Second rule : never tranfer any information without reflexion and study on it. Third rule : stranger and more extraordinary is the information, more reflexion is needed before answering or tranfering… Transfering and/or answering to information and/or question without the time of reflexion is the way to destroy reliability of social media information.
I agree with Maurice Waddle on the point that: "It really depends on ... the nature of the information you want to collect". In some cases, information from social media sites could be taked as "data"; by example as Saizi Kimo wrote: those sites can provide a good starting point for one to understand issues affecting our society in this digital world. But some control to determine the kind of participants on the social media site that you will observe is necessary, and, on dependecy of the nature of the information you want to collect, a good typification of the site you will observe is necessary too.
Social networking sites does not provide the right information every time. Some time it provide fake information because when some one share or uploaded any information or photographs or any pdf information only then we get those information through the network. Some times someone modify the information and uploaded in the social networking sites like face book, twitter, LinkedIn, whats app and only for that reason we cannot depends on it.
It depends. If the site is certified as the real website/social media account of a company/personality, then the information from that site can be considered as reliable.
Reliable for what? What do you want to know? If you wish to know the "facts" - then no one source is good and reliable, but then also two or three sources are not "reliable" to the letter. In fact, it is likely that most facts are not "facts" in the first place.
From a constructivist perspective, every source views, and more importatnly, presents reality differently. Meaning is not set, but rather changes from one spectator to hte next. Thus, if you are interested in knowing the manner in which a given source views or wishes to present reality - then sure, any source is good an relible. Just be sure that you do not confuse anyone's story for "the truth" or "facts".
Good luck.
Yes, but only if it is contextualised and verified for its legitimacy. I find social media to be useful when it comes to providing the unsanitised, hot-off-the-press sentiments around an issue. This is often something that is missing in traditional research. Nowadays transformation, especially education transformation, is often initiated and driven on social media (including through fake news or post- truth!), by tapping into the collective psyche, which provides insights not available elsewhere. I believe its reliability can be verified. Where it can't it should be discarded. The researcher has to be very discerning. Ultimately, a healthy mix of various research (re)sources will add a richness and depth to your research. My only concern is that I have on two occasions, found on going back to check the source (years later), that it is no longer available. This is perhaps something that you would need to bear in mind if you choose to use it. (I keep files of the original articles or reports).
For me, it is difficult to conclude that social media can be reliable source of information.
Social media has their own way of publicity the purpose of which is to highlight their name in the society & also before the viewers . For this reliable source of information it may be their responsibility that they must reflect a very collect picture with the information to the society & viewers but in order to have the publicity they may give a different picture to the society by their own interpretation .
This is my personal opinion
Depends what you mean by reliable; if you're hoping to get some kind of 'truth of the matter' information, better seek another kind of platform; however, if you're looking for authentic data for a study project, such as social media users' opinions, then, in this case, you can find reliability on social media platforms.; that is, reliability of data in terms of authenticity-----people in this population of interest think 'this'.
If you wish to gather social media opinion then you could use this data, but I would suggest very little of it is accurately researched and not everyone uses social media. If they do use social media some don't wish to publicly provide comment, thus you would only be obtaining a limited point of view. Would also depend on how the social media site was set up and who had membership.
I would say it depends on the subject. I used Facebook and Twitter for my study on student protests. Some of the information I obtained on these sites clarified questions that I had. But in the era of lies peddled as news it helps to be cautious.
Yes. Social media can be a reliable source of public opinion on par with focus groups or surveys and often at a larger scale when data collection methods are used that allow for big data collection, analysis, and discovery. Here is a reference: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/health-promotion-chronic-disease-prevention-canada-research-policy-practice/vol-38-no-6-2018/at-a-glance-what-social-media-tells-about-opioid-crisis-canada.html
It depends, we must try and confirm the sources of these pieces of information form other sources to be double sure about such information.
Social media have no gate keeper. No body can ensure its truthfulness. So we should aware about the information of social media. It need further cross check.
I think it depends on two factors firstly who share the information that means the sources of information. Secondly types of information.
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