News is operational information that is of political, social, or economic interest to the audience in its freshness, that is, messages about events that have occurred recently or are occurring at the moment. With the development of the Internet in the modern world, information is transmitted much faster than in the 20th century. Therefore, the number of news published in the media has increased several times. Furthermore, the extent to which people are involved in a particular news event depends on the scale of the changes being made. The importance of personal information that users leave in their social media accounts increases since personal data can be used for various speculations.
One of the leading news of 2020 is the US presidential election. Many people from all over the world are attracted to this event. The main reason why this event value is regarded as high is that the further development of a single country and the world community will be based on the decision made (Godlee). Depending on one candidate’s victory, new economic, political, and social agendas will be formed, which will entail large-scale changes. Consequently, the news of the election campaigns and the elections’ events attracted a wide range of citizens. Accordingly, the number of people affected by the change determines an incident’s newsworthiness since they will be interested in knowing how their lives will change in the future.
With the development of digital technologies, the Internet has become an integral part of many people’s lives. Moreover, according to recent studies, Internet marketing’s effectiveness has raised dramatically, surpassing traditional advertising types. Consequently, businesses that profit from digital sources need to find and influence their target audience. To achieve this goal, corporations use the personal data of users to increase conversions from ad impressions. Many resources store data about visitors, taking advantage of the fact that few people pay attention to the possibility of violations of user agreements. At the moment, almost all sites implement cookies to determine the location of the visitor, as well as the browser used, and other types of information. Most of the personal data is stored on social networks, as users share information about themselves. The primary concern with the storage and publication of private data is that third parties and companies ultimately access it. Accordingly, all information about a person is used without them to sell them a particular product or service or to influence a decision, for example, related to politics.
The most resonant case associated with the violation of privacy remains the publication of Edward Snowden. He revealed the state program PRISM, in which large digital conglomerates took part: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, AOL, Paltalk. Under the program, the listed companies transferred users’ data without consent to various departmental structures (Jordan 19). Thus, modern technologies’ development creates the possibility of violating constitutional laws on the Internet’s right to privacy.
With the advent of the Internet in the daily life of billions of people around the world, the number of published news has increased dramatically. News value is determined by how many citizens will be affected by this or that change. An example is the election of the President of the United States. Private information about users of social networks and other sites may be used by third parties to increase advertisement conversions and influence decision-making.
Works Cited
Godlee, Fiona. “Why This US Election Matters so Much.” British Medical Journal Publishing Group, vol. 371, 2020.
Jordan, Tim. “Does online anonymity undermine the sense of personal responsibility?” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 41, no. 4., 2019.