In 2025 the debate between traditional/legacy media and the new age of digital media has become a huge issue in the world. For starters, since the advent of the internet and social media, people have been able to gather information for themselves. They no longer needed to watch CNN or read the New York Times to learn about what was happening across the world. For the first time they could simply use their computer or their phone and look it up themselves. This took away the importance of the media in the eyes of many Americans. And today social media, the most dominant form of digital media, has allowed anyone with an opinion to share that opinion with millions of other people in an instant. On social media, you do not have to have qualifications or a history of research to talk about a topic, you can simply say anything you think sounds good. This has led to a serious issue when it comes to misinformation in the world, especially on social media. After every tragic breaking news story, millions of people across the country will find politically motivated misinformation that many people will believe. This is a major problem because it means that as a society many people have lost their connection to an objective truth and replaced it with a connection to digital media that is intentionally spreading misinformation. One major example of this is from the COVID lockdowns. During that time misinformation was running rampant with people discounting scientists and researchers in order to uplift their own conspiracy theories. This lead to countless deaths across the country from people who refused to believe what doctors were telling them and instead chose to believe what disingenuous digital media personalities were pushing.
Traditional/legacy media is different from digital media, but they have their own set of flaws. The major reason that people have been able to turn away from legacy media so easily is because of the perception that all traditional media channels and publications are lying to the American people. Both sides of the political spectrum have started to believe this, for Republicans this was during the first Trump administration where Trump frequently pointed to the media as his enemies. For many leftists this moment came in 2016 when they watched as the entire democratic party and media worked tirelessly to derail Bernie Sanders’ political campaign as it did not fit their agenda. More recently millions of Americans have noticed large media figures who have had “disappointing” coverage of Israel’s actions in Palestine. Overall, both sides of the political spectrum are united in the idea that traditional media is bought and paid for by large corporations who will not let them deviate from their narrative.
The only thing a media company needs to be successful in 2025 is trust. Digital media has an overabundance of trust based on telling their specific audience what they want to hear. And the traditional media is lacking in trust because many Americans do not believe the narratives they try to spin.
Site Title 
Leave a comment