Previously, before the social media hype, most people got their news from a credited news station or newspaper. Newspapers and news stations check their facts as best as they can before reporting on it, as they are public sources of news they are liable for the things they report, inaccurate news could result in a decrease in viewers or subscribers, which would mean they lose out on their public standing which is critical for a business. If people don't trust you they're less likely to ask for your services. Today in this day and age, it's still the same for newspapers and new stations, but with an added twist. They now have to compete with smaller news sources, such as blogs, which can be run by your average day Joe/Jane, who do not have to be held to the same standards as these bigger news sources.
The internet is vast, and it's not ridiculous to say that there are an infinite amount of sources in which you can obtain information from. As I said before though, many are run by your average person, this dilutes the amount of proper information you can receive from a single source. Of course that isn't to say that what you smaller news sources post aren't true or that the information is bad, it just means that sometimes not everything is down to the letter exact, and they don't really have to double check their information for irregularities and such. If you go out and search news topics I'm sure you could find many sources which contradict each other, though at the same time you'd find many that compliment others. This is where it becomes troubling, who can you trust? Personally I'd gather much of the current events from Facebook. I have Global News and CBC both 'Liked'. I'm a bit picky so I can't pick one, I compare similar news stories from these two sources, but that's because I believe I can trust them, they're big news stations, they need to have reliable facts. The problem with have many sources run by any average person is the facts. If you want to be popular it's more advantageous to get the story out first, with the internet that makes it almost instantaneous. That isn't good, there isn't any time to research, no time to think it over, as it is a race to see who can get things out there the fastest. At the same time, we are more aware. We gather more information, and if we're interested there are plenty of sources in which we can go to, to delve deeper into the topics at hand.
One instant of news irregularities I came upon just happened recently with the capture and escape of a Canadian UN worker in Syria. I'm not too sure as to why, but Global News has reported that this man was released, which CBC News did as well, but if you read further into the report by clicking on the CBC article it mentions that he was able to escape, which there is no mention of in the Global article. CBC also goes into some details of the escape. I'm not sure if it's just me, but I understand release as in letting him go, if he escaped there was no release going on. Though I was really able to get this information without having to wait for the 6pm or 11pm news, because of social media. (Please note that the article was updated and the video with the caption saying "escaped" was not there previous to me reading it.)
http://globalnews.ca/news/907863/canadian-un-worker-released-in-syria-in-good-health/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/carl-campeau-montrealer-working-for-un-released-from-capture-in-syria-1.2100770?cmp=fbtl
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