The Pew Research Center reports that "55% of U.S. adults now get their news from social media either...an 8% increase from last year." Apps like Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube offer credible new stories and, unfortunately, fake news stories can also appear.
Some apps, however, don't seem to have that issue. Snapchat has managed to keep fake news at bay. Nitasha Tiku explains, "On Snapchat, the name of the game is projecting authenticity...and the rules of the game are enforced in the way the app is designed." Apparently, content is only accessible for a limited time and disappears after. "News is contained in a separate section, called Discover" (Tiku). By looking through Discover, it was still hard to find news. All I found were vlogs, shows, and videos of animals & people doing cute & creative things. Meticulously separating news from posts is daring, yet smart. So far, it hasn't cost Snapchat its fanbase, since there's an app for just about everyone out there.
At first glance, Snapchat looks like a waste of time, and for some, it probably is. But if you look a bit deeper, it's ingenuity at work.
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