People Begin to Distrust Facebook

A YouGov poll discovered that Facebook is losing its credibility or more precisely local newspapers are three times more trusted for news than social media platforms such as Facebook.

Local newspapers are considered the most credible in terms of providing the news. Obviously it is regional news but local newspapers lead local television and radio and search engines in terms of trustworthiness.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of people trust the information that they read in their local newspaper both online and in print whereas 22% trust local news presented on social media platforms such as Facebook.

It appears that the stories about fake news has made Britons skeptical about the news that they read on Facebook. Fewer than a quarter of people trust social media in contrast to 61% who trust traditional media such as newspapers and television.

This is ironic because both Facebook and Google have taken a large slice of classified revenues relied upon by local and national newspapers. The press is becoming increasingly unsustainable and the UK government is reviewing the situation because closing 200 local papers over the past decade is a threat to democracy.

I hope that this poll helps drive people away from Facebook and back to a more trusted source, the local newspaper. How does this impact the world of cats? Well, there is a lot of cat news on Facebook. A lot of cat welfare happens on Facebook. I get some of my stories from Facebook. We need to be able to trust this dominant social media platform and it appears that currently we are unable to do so.

As an aside, I should say that when I'm writing articles about the domestic cat or wild cat species I ensure that my primary sources are books written by the best authors. In this way I'm able to go to the root source of information rather than relying upon second or third hand information which is often presented on the Internet. We always need to go back to basics.

Cat News Stories Can Be Drivel

How many stories about cats have you read that are quite frankly drivel. The cat is not only vulnerable on the streets of many cities, it is also vulnerable to exploitation by news media. I think this is an extension of the celebrity cat phenomenon. It all started off with funny cat videos and LOL cats. When is it going to end?

In this instance, we have a local British newspaper called the Norwich Evening News reporting "Aylsham residents terrorised by attacking cat". It is almost as if we have been transported to the midwest of America describing a mountain lion prowling around the suburbs of some nondescript town terrorising God-fearing residents. But no. This is a small, black and white domestic cat, possibly unneutered, who spends a lot of time outside, as often happens in Britain.

We are informed that there had been two cat attacks in this sleepy town. In one, an old lady was knocked over in her back garden by this "aggressive animal" who bit her leg. The cat was probably defending himself. Domestic cats don't attack people without reason.

Helen Copperthwaite, who is 65 years of age says:

“I have seen the cat around in my garden and was amazed at how aggressive it was. It turned on me and started to hiss and growl like it was going to fight.”

The cat is described as being distinctive having white paws and white chest. This is not a distinctive domestic cat! This is a standard black-and-white cat - a tuxedo cat, in fact. Often the paws of the cat are white when the cat carries the piebald gene which is also called the white spotting gene.

I'm afraid that I agree with one of the visitors who has commented on this article in which he stated that it is drivel. It is simply the case of a newspaper that has temporarily run out of something to say and in these situations both the domestic cat and the big cat tends to pop into the minds of reporters.

In America they would probably have euthanised it for being rabid.