On cspan, we are featuring the winners of our student cam documentary exe. Students create a video answering the question what do you most want the 2020 kits candidates to address. Our first prize goes to jamal mayers, and yuna chun, 8th graters from silver spring, maryland. Their winning entry is called blackout, misinformation in the able of social media. Breaking news tonight, the president accused of abusing his power. I dont know. You wanted that. Vorblee media, hundreds of platforms. Since its beginning, social media has been a platform for online journalism and its continued development has allowed for the growth of thousands of different communities. From phantoms to sport teams to support heightlines, social media has helped the world connect in ways previously unimaginable. There is a down side. As more and more people gain the ability to say whatever they want on social media, they also gain the ability to spread fake news and information. Since the founding of america, two as a nation have been dedicated to free speech and a free press, and social media has only furthered this liberty. Because of the use of conservation bias, promotion of hate and influence on 2020 elections, social media should be addressed by candidates as an important influence on public opinion. Candidates now and in the future so better learn to address social media as a news platform. As their network he is grow, so does their power to polarize the public. They should learn to respect the fact that the press is there to hold them accountable instead of harming the publics information intake and dividing them. A lot your phone. While you are doing that, there are a whole bunch of other things you are not thinking about, and those things might be important. They may be an important aspect of your society that you are missioning out on. There is all this stuff out there that effectively distracts us from the things that it would behoove us to focus on if we want to function as a society. At this point in time we have a nation where people can tune in to things they already believe, things that interest them, things that have already interested them, rather than things they need to hear. The common a lot of the echo champion phenomenon has been amplified with the development of internet communities and social Rocco Mediate yafment if our country is going to not only survive but do well, we need a trustworthy preston telling was is going on. Facebook and google have personalized algorithms, only digging people further into a social bubble. The way our brains work, our brains remember really key things. It remember respect the first thing that it learns. This is really useful for avoiding things like avoiding falling off a cliff or getting sucked into a tornado or being eaten by a tiger. It is not so good when we are looking at news. We latch on to the first thing, and it sticks in our heads, and we tend to judge every subsequent piece of information braced on that first thing. Because our brains are constantly judging information based on first impressions, the average viewers are easily confused by ideas that are important to political discussions. You have to get comfortable with the idea that there are basic facts out there, and they are based on the consensus of experts, and that those facts do change, but that there is such a thing as expertise. It is not perfect, but it is how we knows, how we knowle facts. With social media, information is filtered through and may be distorted. This makes Fact Checking even more important. There is a somewhat reduced number of actual journalists out looking for information at is supposed to served contrariate. There are lot of people they a lot of people whose owe votes they need. One of the great, about donald trump is he threw that out the window. It is sort of fantastic because if you check his twitter freed, there are thousands of people talking back to him. If your job is to get the information that is is concealed in some ways, to hold the government accountable and hold Political Parties acountable, or companies by getting the story behind the public ruminations. And to the casual observer, there is no way to know who is telling the truth or no. You have to independently know a lot of stuff about everything to be able to assess the truth value of what is going on. In that sense politicians i think have really learned how to spin on social media, and it is really to everyones detriment. We surveyed 30 students to see where they got their news. 53. 3 of them got 24ress some of their news from social media. They will start voting in 20r24 and continue to vote as social media grows. My sense is i see so much intense organizing in opposition of donald trump, that it seems like social media will work to the benefit of whoever Donald Trumps challenger is going to be. It doesnt matter which party you associate with. It doesnt matter for who you end you have voting. If you have access to the internet, social media is going to influence your vote. We have to exercise Critical Thinking and keep an eye on the sources we choose to follow. Otherwise, the United States will be the next of social medias victims. You can watch each winning documentary online at scuentcam. Org. While the corona virus pandemic continues coming your members of congress are working from their home districts. That of my folks are ones are in the automotive industry. The other majority are your frontline workers. Not only considered essential workers. That helpthe folks put groceries on our table. I think it is important to highlight that they are the ones that are now keeping us a float. This is a very serious issue. What i have been telling people is to please listen to the federal and state and local authorities, the health experts. And stay away from people right now. I see this as a war. The u. S. Is at war with this virus. Stay in touch using the newly updated cspan congressional directory with all of the Contact Information you need. Ater your copy online today cspan store. Org. On the correct while the coronavirus pandemic is having an impact on the schedule, steny hoyer announced members will not be back for legislative business until monday, may 4. And Mitch Mcconnell has announced the same. Two weeks after the chamber was originally scheduled to return. And members have been advised that they will have sufficient notice if legislation regarding the coronavirus were to be considered before may 4. Joining us from baltimore is wen, she is the author of the book when doctors dont listen. She is currently a visiting professor of Health Policy management at George Washington university. Thank you for being with us on cspan. Guest of course. Happy to join you and thank you for the invitation. Host there are reporters that in the city youre in, in philadelphia, in chicago and washington, d. C. , we have not reached the peak yet. What does that tell you