Here's one proof why citizen journalism isn't always reliable at times. For the past few weeks, it seems like swine flu have been mentioned at least once in everyone's tweet in a day. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. I'm talking about a lot of people, the majority of twitter users. So how many of these people are actually experts of swine flu? Some of the unofficial tweets are misleading since people just post whatever they have on their minds and address their fears. Twitter is, really, a noisy channel.
"This is a good example of why [Twitter is] headed in that wrong direction, because it's just propagating fear amongst people as opposed to seeking actual solutions or key information," said Brennon Slattery, a contributing writer for PC World. "The swine flu thing came really at the crux of a media revolution."
It all comes back to the idea of citizen journalism and how some controversies about it still prevail. Can everyone voice their opinion on any subject matter? And can that person be held accountable for his opinion? Slattery wrote that no actual solutions or key information are sought through this medium. My marketing teacher told us today that he's on twitter for its benefit to follow news officials, not so much for the sake of telling the world what he's up to for the day. Well, there's him and there are also people that I know who use twitter to connect with their friends, "meet" new people (pun intended), and talk to their boyfriends (yes, with the lovebirds' language) about things happening in their daily life that would eradicate the newsworthiness and relevance factor of a public information.
But really, I can't agree more with Al Tompkins who said that these social media users should think about the credibility of their sources before they post something. "Before you pass it on, wash your hands a little," he said.
Photo: xkcd
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment