*Normally I write about toddlers, pregnancy and poop and take lots of picture of my food. But I lived another life once, one where I sat at a table and discussed major world news events. One where I carried a voice recorder and a notepad, where I got cauliflower ear from having a phone pressed up to my head for hours. One where someone actually paid me to observe and write. Today, I realized how much I missed that world and wondered if I was still responsible enough to be a part of it.
I love information. There’s way too much of it crammed into my brain, which serves as an organic file cabinet that probably could star in its own episode of Hoarders.
But it’s not just the knowing of things with which I’m obsessed, it’s the origins, communication and effects of that information that completely enthrall me.
I’ve spent time in several newsrooms and watched how gatekeepers uncover and disseminate information. I’ve been a gatekeeper myself. And perhaps the biggest lesson I learned from those experiences was that the sheer immensity of the responsibility that comes with knowing and sharing information can be overwhelming.
Before the advent of social media, that responsibility was easier to bear because timeliness was manageable. Information did not necessarily have to be instantly available because people understood what it took to prepare, fact check and present it.
But now in the age of Twitter where information is immediately accessible, easily searchable and instantly disseminated and corroborated, timeliness is all but impossible to manage.
This morning, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend at home, drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of his coaches in the parking lot.
A HUGE story in any market, not just sports.
I found out about it when one of my friends tweeted a link to another tweet from someone with firsthand knowledge of the situation. It was just after eight in the morning.
It took another 15 minutes for me to find a second reputable confirmation of this event using Twitter. Another ten before a local news outlet posted a story.
At least a full hour before the news made it to the ESPN ticker on television.
And about sixty seconds before people started bitching at ESPN about not having the player’s name available when it had been known on Twitter for at least 45 minutes, and for taking so long to even break the story in the first place.
What most of these people don’t understand is that the levels of professional responsibility differ greatly from your average newshound on Twitter to your national news desk.
On Twitter, speculation is accepted, if not expected. Twitter is information and thoughts with no filter, with virtually no responsibility. This is what makes Twitter both great and terrible.
Great because its unfettered nature allows for unbiased dissemination. Great because it makes everyone a gatekeeper.
Terrible because there’s no collective agreement to hold anyone responsible for the effects of releasing sensitive information too soon. Terrible because fact checking isn’t really a priority for this army of “First”ers.
On ESPN, however, producers have to be absolutely sure of facts before they report them in a situation like this. They are held accountable for releasing a victim’s name before the family is notified. They hold themselves and are held to a higher standard of journalistic integrity.
This means that national sports news networks such as ESPN as well as broader networks like CNN no longer have the market cornered as breaking news sources. Instead, they’ve adapted to provide more in-depth coverage. (Some say this has forced them to become nothing more than a sideshow of talking heads.)
So, as the heir to the kingdom of breaking news, does Twitter need to police itself more carefully regarding sensitive information? Or is this just the future of news?
And what about sites like Wikipedia? Jovan Belcher’s death was updated almost immediately on that site. As several of my friends asked, “Who appointed themselves Wikipedia death updater? What kind of person thinks to immediately do that?”
I’ve done some soul searching this morning in regard to these questions. I know that I love seeing news break. I’m amazed at watching the rate of dissemination that’s possible these days. I like to be the first to know. And yes, I like to be the one who breaks the story first.
But what is my responsibility as a blogger and social media participant? Am I required to wait for the authorities to confirm details on a separate news source before I can share information? Or is there a point where I independently evaluate the credibility of my own sources and post as I see fit?
If I get it wrong, a 140-character retraction is probably enough to satisfy my followers. No one is going to be calling for my job or writing angry letters to my superiors. As fast as my online world changes, people probably won’t even remember my mistake an hour later.
But I’ll know, and since one day I do want to return to the newsroom – or at the very least be a part of the journalism world in a freelance position – it would behoove me to not form any bad habits.
How do you think Twitter can hold itself accountable for accuracy in its spread of information? Is that even possible? Or does the commerce of Followers, Retweets and Favorites keep people loosely in line?
Such insight. Thank you for this. I was blown away at how fast the information spread. I think it can be such a good thing and also so very bad. A double-edged sword.
Sharing this, mama. Great post.
Thanks for sharing it.
It’s an interesting Catch-22 that we face in this digital age.
Great topic!
I think you are asking very important questions.
I was actually talking about information that spreads through social media yesterday in one of my classes.
While there can be a lot of misinformation, rumours, and speculation, there is also honesty, integrity, passion, and information that the news corporations chose not to cover. For example, the massive strike by Walmart employees on Black Friday in the US did not make the news here in Canada. It was however, all over facebook and twitter. This was one of the biggest movements in labour relations in a long time, but on the news here, no where to be found.
When it comes to “legitimate” sources of news and information, we have to ask, what are the news corporations choosing to cover, and what are they leaving out. Who is controlling the message? The news, in all forms, sets the stage for how we see healthcare, crime, public policy, war, everything. Why do we let them have so much power?
So, that said, I encourage everyone to look to Twitter and Facebook to see what is really happening in the world, BUT, be critical. I would say that people mostly are honest and want to share the truth.
I am very thankful that we have an outlet where discerning people can look at information and decide for themselves, as that is not really the case with major news outlets anymore. I think it’s up to responsible people to balance out the trolls in places like Twitter and present information as clearly and quickly as possible.
Very good insight, Julie, and great post! Personally, I hate the idea of Twitter and still do not have a Twitter account. Nor do I want one.
I hate seeing journalistic integrity scoffed at by the talentless hacks on social media who wouldn’t know AP style if it smacked them in their face. The late Robert Hankins and I used to talk in the Orange County News newsroom of how great it would have been to worked in journalism in the 1950s through the 1980s and then retire before all this Internet mess came along. It would have been nice to work in journalism when a reporter’s integrity was appreciated, and the dedication to facts and details was a wanted commodity in the media.
Sadly, those days are gone. Sometimes I still ponder what it would be like to go back into journalism. I’m a writer at heart and I love working on a good feature or investigative piece. But, I look and see what the media has become today and it sickens me. So, I guess I’ll stay in the classroom.
Thanks for pointing this out about social media. The ones who need to understand will probably never see it, or if they do they will not heed it. But, it is definitely a breath of fresh air to know that some of us were taught well and really got it.
Greg, I would encourage anyone who is interested in current events to look into Twitter. While it may not seem like an upstanding source in and of itself, it is comprised of many responsible people who are interested in getting out factual information as soon as possible. It’s a black market of information and to ignore it would be folly, IMO.
You make me smile with your comment on staying in the classroom, and about how we were trained. I thank God all the time for Howard Perkins and Andy Coughlan and the lessons they taught us.
You really do have that newsroom mentality. I admire those who can crank out informative, useful posts on very tight deadlines without resorting to the “got there first” hangups of incomplete and/or erroneous statements. I was very impressed both by your measured Twitter responses and this particular post. Well done, especially as we mourn yet another family affected by mental illness and suicide.
When things like this happen, I am thankful for the different ways in which people are created to think and feel. There are people who advocate for domestic violence victims, for mental illness. People who are able to stop and just feel the emotion of the situation and people who are better at objectively reporting the information as clearly as possible. I’m definitely not one of the emotionally in tune folks, so I feel like it’s my responsibility to responsibly report instead.
It is a tragic situation in Kansas City. I remember being in Orlando visiting family and hearing a ton of emergency vehicles on a busy street where I was shopping. Ambulances and police cars appearing all over the place. I turned on the local radio. Nothing. I then looked at Twitter and saw a RT from a woman in Italy to a breaking story of a office shooter in downtown Orlando. It took 10 more minutes before the local radio reported anything. I learned of a tragedy 1.5 miles from where I was standing from a tweet of a woman halfway around the globe. It is a new world.
I am hopeful we will learn to be responsible with each new tool we are given, but as our history with technological advances shows, we’re like kids in a candy store at first.
I hate that there were probably families this morning who didn’t know if it was their player that shot himself….I saw speculation on Facebook this morning of who it might be, then almost immediately, P said who it was. Mind blowing. Can you imagine what it would’ve been like on twitter if the twin towers had gone down, like, this year? I HATED that feeling of trying to call my family and not knowing what was going on on 9/11, then getting little bits of news for the rest of the day.
Also, I’m exhausted, and that was really not your point at all. I’m not sure if Twitter can be “policed” in any way. Or FB, for that matter….that’s obvious from all of the fake stories that are shared over and over and over. At least on Twitter, the real stories seem to be revealed so much more quickly.
I really appreciate this POV because it shows that yes, there is a need for immediate flow of information from many sources at once. Again, for discerning, rational people this is a good thing. But we aren’t all made that way, so there is a lot of room for problems to occur. (I kind of apply this same thinking to gun control. I know I’m responsible enough to own them, but I’m not so sure about my neighbors, ya know?)
We have become a society of ‘now’, ‘immediate’, ‘instant’, or it’s not considered new or newsworthy. People care more about being first than being right. I don’t know how it can be reined in – when the powers that are try to change the rules/ police something on social media, too many will protest and just not get with the program. Social media has made society too loose, too free.
It’s good and bad, just as it is with everything in life.
I think social media has allowed me to look back on my own behavior and modify it in a way that has added maturity. It’s kind of hard to look at your public self and not evaluate where you could do better, so for that I’m thankful. I think if you’re set free, you do initially run around like a crazy person. It’s like not having a bedtime for the first time. But eventually you reign yourself in to comfortable boundaries. If you’re sane, that is.
I loved this article. I agree that journalistic integrity seems to be of the past, along with integrity in other fields. I love your turn of a phrase and analytical style. Of course, I am not blinded by parental pride.
I think integrity still exists in many places, and I look forward to things cycling back around from sensationalistic to more level and responsible reporting. Oh look, I’m being optimistic.
Mama,
I don’t think it’s possible to control this massive social network.
I guess the bad comes w/ the good (as always). It’s about awareness,. It’s about a great post like this one. Hopefully, this will make irresponsible/ignorant people stop and think before they press publish. X
I guess it’s the great social experiment to see if we’re capable of ever controlling ourselves without being reigned in from appointed external sources!
Twitter is a place where it’s easy enough to block things out if you really want to – but most people don’t want to. I think the only “rule” to keep people in line is that pesky Golden Rule that has no police officer enforcing it but oneself. I mean, take the “twitter feuds” between celebs that thousands gleefully dance about in – and then the “perp” silences his/her account for a bit and then returns. As though s/he’s been in the corner for a spell. People feel like they can say whatever they wish, and if they show any form of remorse, then it’s okay. That’s just not so. It’s not okay. Except then it is.
I share your hand-wringing about it, and I’m glad you point out the ESPN delay – all of 60 minutes, was it? – had a reason. People need to step away from the IV of information sometimes to see that the world doesn’t spin any faster than it did years ago – we just look at more of the scenery.
I was at the library with my daughter waiting to hear a story read by Santa and Mrs. Claus. It was 9:40 am and the murmurs started with the gathering of three people. I checked my facebook just to kill time and there was a post about the story. While I was texting Irishman to check the news, another woman behind me was on the phone sharing the news with someone on the other end. It was amazing how many were talking about it and even joking within two hours of the event.
This is such an interesting article to read and think about. My husband often says to double check certain stories that come out on Twitter and Facebook. People believe so easily and sometimes things just aren’t what they seem!