Spencer Giblin
sg109008@ohio.edu
Wait a Minute...
As a strategic communication major and someone who frequents sites such as Facebook and Twitter, I find it extremely easy to come across "Breaking News" bits that pop up on both forms of social media. Sometimes the headlines are catchy. Sometimes the stories are exciting. Sometimes the pieces written are sad and emotional. Sometimes the article is just plain wrong.
As someone who looks to the Internet and social media for my daily dose of what's going on in the world, I like to think that the information I'm coming across is accurate and true. After all, as journalists we have a responsibility of truth to the public. However, it is becoming more often the case that news outlets and other forms of online journalism would rather be first, than be entirely accurate. The author of the article "Twitter: Often first, not always right" states that verification is a very important factor when publishing some form of news (whether online or offline.)
There are all sorts of examples that I can elaborate on, but one that most prominently comes to mind is the Newtown, CT shooting at Sandy Hook. In the early hours of this event, reports were coming in from different news outlets that one "Ryan Lanza" was responsible for this horrible tragedy. Fox News was the first to release the statement that police had identified the shooter. CNN then went as far as to claim that a federal agent had told them that Ryan Lanza was "no stranger to the school."
Turns out, they were both wrong. In fact, it wasn't Ryan Lanza that shot up the school at all. It was his brother Adam Lanza, and the news outlets had been publishing inaccurate information. This wasn't the only inaccuracy about the story either. There were inaccuracies about where and for whom the police and federal agents were searching. There were inaccuracies about the different "assault" weapons used in the shooting. Some reports even said Lanza had walked into his mother's kindergarden class and shot her dead (even though it was later proven that Lanza had killed his mother in her home).
(Photo credit: Tom Scott, Journalism Warning Labels)
How do things like this happen? I, for one, love publishing something first as much as the next person. It feels good to be first. It feels good to be the one to first tell someone new and exciting information. Yet, in a society that's built on capturing what one sees and putting it online, can we really afford to try to be first at the expense of being accurate?
Better not Post that...
Nowadays, if you have any creditability in online journalism, chances are whatever you say is going to be seen by someone. Chances are that someone is going to screenshot what you said and use it against you forever. We've all heard it before: "Once something is online, it's there forever."
This article describes a girl that posted a picture of her Halloween costume online. The problem? She dressed as a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing. She was subsequently fired from her job and she and her family received multiple death threats afterward.
Sure, news outlets can delete posts, backtrack, issue apologies etc., but by then what they've (inaccurately) reported has been seen by tens, hundreds, even thousands of people that originally though what they read was the truth. Turns out, it was just an attempt to be the first to cover the story.
We as journalists cannot disregard our responsibility to truth or to the public. We can't sacrifice something that so many criticize our profession for. We cannot be sloppy journalists.
People that are bad at their job get fired. News agencies that are bad at their jobs gain national notoriety as a team that published inaccurate information.
I want to be able to say that I was first when I tell someone something, but I also want to know that what I'm talking about is the truth. I don't want to have to issue an apology or a reprint. I want to be the first, and I want to be right about what I'm reporting.
Maybe some of these major news agencies and outlets should take note.
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