Social media can be positive in how quickly it allows you to obtain news. You can learn of happenings through reputable sources or via word-to-worth. Information learned from other individuals may not be as accurate. When you played the game telephone as a child, you discovered that the story could become altered as it was told to person after person. Social media news may not be as credible if users are writing the information in an update (using their own words) rather than sharing the original writer’s content. If you decide to follow reputable news sources, such as WHDH, it does not mean that the news is 100% accurate. In the case of breaking news, reporters may apply the journalism of assertion method, which “puts the highest value on immediacy and volume,” (Kovach & Rosenteil, 2010, p. 34). The station wants to be the first one to report the breaking news and in doing so, they may not report accurate information. In other times, there might be a news report on a recent invention at MIT. Because these stories are not as time-sensitive, reporters can further develop the story so that it is complete. In the Dunkin’ Donuts incident above, the story does not mention any citations that the second driver may have received. The story leaves questions to be answered. A story that leaves the reader questioning, such as what happened to the other driver, is not a credible source because they are not providing the entire story.
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Kovach, B., & Rosensteil, T. (2010). Blur - How to know what’s true in the age of information overload. New York: Bloomsbury USA.
"Social media can be positive in how quickly it allows you to obtain news." Well put, Cesira! In a Twitter Webinar I learned a lot about the power of Twitter. When the airplane crash landed in the Hudson River a few years back a passenger on a ferry crossing the river took a picture of the plane and tweeted it out. By the time the ferry docked there were reporters who knew the man's name and wanted to talk to him about his picture. This man had only 9 followers on twitter and he obtained this kind of exposure. Social media can be a great outlet for sharing live events in real time.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's amazing! Your example also shows you the power that social media allows. For others to find this tweet and then be able to locate the individual is amazing. On Facebook, it's similar to making a post that updates your location - you are telling people where you are (and also telling the wrong people that you aren't home). Sometimes too much information is a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteCesira -- I also use Twitter a lot for breaking news. It has become a really powerful tool to stay abreast of what's going on. I create lists of different accounts that I follow on Twitter. For example, I follow a bunch of media sites and so once they tweet a breaking story, I see it. I also follow several journalists, who also break stories. For example, Mike Huckabee trended on Twitter yesterday over an inflammatory comment about more freedom in North Korea than the US. That broke on Twitter and not CNN, Fox or MSNBC. Your post is very insightful!
ReplyDeleteCesira, your analysis of the Dunkin Donuts report was on point. Sometimes writers are so eager to get the news out, they forget to bring the story full circle. Even news via social media should include the 5Ws+H. Just like in traditional print and broadcast news, we should have any questions answered within the first paragraph or 10 seconds. Oh, but wait, we're talking social media or messaging in chunks. This is the reason why I watch the Nightly News with Diane Sawyer ... to get the full scope of the same story reported earlier on Twitter, Facebook and even CNN Breaking News (my desktop homepage), which has a tendency to not have all of the facts by the first post. Thanks for leading this conversation, Cesira!
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