Image uploaded from a quicklink (Image by Unknown Owner) Details DMCA | We are living in an age where regular people really make the news. There's CNN's iReports, but I'm hypothesizing that the sharing of news items by people on social media often results in mainstream news outlets picking up a story that they might have otherwise overlooked. Even if the mainstream media doesn't pick up news stories, there are alternative news outlets that are willing to do the job. These alternative outlets in turn can inform people about stories that they wouldn't hear about elsewhere. Then these stories are shared on social media and the cycle begins again. Sometimes the stories found by alternative news outlets are just too big to ignore, with WikiLeaks, for example, spurring mainstream news stories. I'm always amazed at the variety of news sources that my Facebook friends post. |