Back in December, South African President Nelson Mandela became the target of an unfortunate hoax – users began tweeting and re-tweeting that the anti-apartheid activist has passed away.
But was there any foundation to this rumor? No – it was simply a rumor spread by the viral nature of Twitter – a game of ‘telephone’ gone awry. “Why Social Media Can’t Be Trusted for Breaking News… Yet!” uses this example as a case in point for the unreliable effect of news on social media. It seems unthinkable that a major event like the death of a president would be repeated without any fact-checking, yet that’s exactly what happened in a matter of minutes.
The article’s author argues it’s an issue of filtering, essentially a check for quality control. The only problem is, that filter isn’t there. “How do you know that the individual posting news has a firm understanding on what is or isn’t newsworthy? How do you know there’s not bias or agenda? The fact is, you don’t.” This goes beyond simply reposting a link to a story – it deals with the implicit “Social Media umbrella of assumed trust” that we all buy into, sometimes without even realizing it.
I think this is the key point, that by seeing statements, be it mundane (“I just took a shower”) or newsworthy (“There’s a fire breaking out on Main St!”) we tend to believe them, coming from the online representations of our friends whom we believe to be trustworthy in real life. But the author cautions that there’s “too much confusion at play between the speed at which people can receive information, the excitement of the delivery process, how people interpret that information, and trust in the accuracy of perceived news.”
I agree with the author the flaws of Social Media need to be examined in order for its delivery system to turn into a legitimate news source one day. The strengths of Social Media are clear, but as pointed out above, it can be trying to discern fact from opinion in the social universe.
The SSN Take: Regardless of the source, a good fact-checking is a solid idea - especially on the precarious Social Media news reel.
Samuel Hartman, April 1, 2010
Note: Post not sponsored.
