The students take out their phones to brainstorm new, entertaining video ideas for their broadcasting class. Scroll after scroll, they finally land on the perfect one. They begin to capture their idea on film, bringing it to life.
The influence of social media on live, broadcast news has affected not only what is on the news, but also the way news spreads. Broadcast journalism students Shayna Zangeneh and Maria Jose de Lange say social media platforms have influenced the content they make for their school broadcasting class.
“TikTok influences the content I create because when I don’t have an idea for CTV, I go on TikTok and look up funny interviews and I input that into CTV clips,” Shayna said.
The Clements morning announcements, or CTV, include short entertainment or informational segments. While social media has so far simply been an inspiration for these segments, both students said that it might even replace news sources for teens.
“I feel like I get most of my news from social media because I feel like the people who post on TikTok are super quick with it,” Shayna said.
Not only is social media a more convenient news source for some, but Maria believes the newer generations no longer have the attention span to read news.
“Most teens won’t spend time reading an article anymore,” Maria said. “With TikTok, they tend to put it in a quick video, it may be funny, and it may not be extremely factual, but it is still informational.”
Outside of being a source of news, social media has also greatly impacted much of teens’ everyday lives and even become a distraction for them.
“I tend to procrastinate, but I take responsibility for those actions,” Maria said. “I might stay up late to finish homework. So, I’ll get everything done, but I’ll get less sleep and at the end of the day I realize I should have just slept instead of scrolling.”
With the apparent distraction of social media, the students said that they have found it difficult to limit screen time or delete social media.
“I feel like I can’t live without my phone and social media,” Shayna said. “I feel like my friends each have a different app that they use to communicate so I have to keep up with them. I have to text my family on WhatsApp because they live in a different country. So, I feel like I just can’t.”
However, Maria said she had a “positive experience” deleting Instagram for the summer.
“It honestly felt so nice,” Maria said. “Even though summer is when you post what’s going on, what fun things you’re doing, or where you’re traveling to, it was nice to just spend time with my family without the influence of my phone, comparing myself to others, and just having fun.”
Overall, the two students said that social media, specifically TikTok, has made a great impact on their lives and their production process of CTV clips.
“[TikTok] helps us get what’s trendy and attract younger crowds, like us,” Maria said.
