Civic knowledge is defined as being the information that the general population needs to know. According to The Role of Civic Education, every thoughtful citizen should think about five core questions:
- What are civic life, politics and government?
- What are the foundations of the American political system?
- How does the government established by the Constitution embody the purposes, values and principles of American democracy?
- What is the relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs?
- What are the roles of citizens in American democracy?
Civic knowledge touches upon the answers to each of those five questions for the general public who desire more information on the matter.
One way for civic knowledge to spread out to the entire world is through social media. Social media platforms have actually surpassed print newspapers as a way of hearing about news for American citizens. 1 in 5 adults in the United States state that they usually get their news from social media. Social media took the lead over print newspapers after the years of decreasing circulation of the newspapers and the increase in the amount of Americans who partake in social media, of any kind.
1 in 5 adults in the United States state that they usually get their news from social media.
Statistics show that out of the entire social media population, Instagram has 11% of those people, whereas Twitter has 12% of the population of social media users. Facebook leads all social media platforms with 36% of the population and 21% of the social media user population said they use Youtube for news. Two thirds of social media users aged 25 or younger stated that they use Instagram as their top social media news source. That same cohort of people said that they were twice as likely to use social media as their news outlet, instead of print newspapers.
Although social media is known to be an untrustworthy new source, Americans still use it in their day to day lives, so using social media as a news source becomes much more convenient than actually buying and reading a newspaper. Most American millennials use social media for news every day because they are constantly checking their accounts. Some popular news outlets on social media are ABC news and ESPN. Whether or not we like it, social media is going to become the norm for the younger generations to get their news consumption.
Journalism 2.0 