This is a blog I did on my own.
On September 28th Journalists and Policy Makers met at the U.S. Institute of Peace to discuss how social media has, and will continue to affect accurate journalism. Social media like Twitter and journalists have used Facebook very effectively over the past few years as a way to spread up to date information across the world. Alec Ross of the State Department said that it “Heralds democratization, while bringing the threat of misinformation.” He spoke of a very real concern in today’s world of journalism.
Because of the explosion in the number of users of these platforms, people have become accustomed to receiving information at a rate that traditional news organizations simply cannot keep up with. To put it in short, the days of picking up the daily newspaper at the local newsstand have come and gone.
Many journalists use what citizens post on Twitter and Facebook as a way to compile information across thousands of miles into one concise report. The positives of this are that journalists can report on situations that are happening right this second, at virtually no cost to their organization. These platforms can aloes be used in organizing revolutions and protests in countries that are abusing their citizens. Citizen journalists used social media to organize protests throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa during the Arab Spring. And the Syrian and Arab crackdown on the freedom of expression via these platforms is a testament to how dangerous they can be.
The problem with this is the credibility of these citizen journalists. With no real way to verify the legitimacy of the content, it has become very easy for journalists to report misinformation relayed to them but un-credible sources. Now the journalists don’t know which citizen sources to trust. There was one instance where fake tweets about a bombing in Mexico led to a countrywide panic of families pulling their children out of school. The panic actually caused injury to many people in panicked car crashes during this time.
Because of the anonymity that makes these platform so instrumental when used in social protest against harmful governments, there is no way to check the legitimacy of other sources of information. The meeting only concluded that until these issues are sorted out, it’s likely that tweets and posts will only be of historical use, as an archive of events for future reflection.
source: http://www.mobiledia.com/news/110080.html