Social Media Pressures Cause Issues

Katie Cameron
kc313010@ohio.edu

Social Media Changes Everything
     
Social media has put a rush on journalism and has put into question whether social media users such as bloggers, tweeters or Facebookers should be called journalists. Are these people following ethical codes and ensuring all the information being put on the Internet is accurate?

Blogs, Twitters and Facebooks are easily accessed from computers or phones. Any "plain Jane" could pick up their phone, take a picture and tweet about a "newsworthy event." Is this considered journalism or should there be guidelines to spell out who is a journalist and who is not a journalist?

With easy access to social media, journalists have felt pressure to report as fast as possible to ensure they are the first reporter with information. Because of this big mistakes have been made. Below is an example.

The Sandy Hook Shooting occurred in Connecticut on Dec. 14, 2012. The first mistake reported through social media was the name of the gunman.

"On Friday morning, as the story broke, the Web was filled with erroneous reports-- not only from regular people on Twitter, but also from major news organizations. The worst of those may have been the false identification of a young man named Ryan Lanza as the gunman, including the circulation of his Facebook photo and some of his posts from Facebook. As we now know, the shooter, Adam Lanza, was the brother of Ryan Lanza. Thus, there was a layer upon lay of extraordinarily damaging information." (Errors in Newtown Shooting, Margaret Sullivan)

With pressure to be the first reporter to release the name of the gunman, many journalists did not take the time to make sure the name of the gunman was accurate. This incident was a serious issue because it had a very big effect on the man that was accused of the shooting.

People were harassing him all over his social media when he had no idea what had happened or why he was being blamed for it. He was not the one to go into a school and shoot innocent children; it was his brother. Ryan will forever carry this burden, and this could have been avoided if journalists checked their information for accuracy before sending it out on the Internet.

So What Should Journalist Do? 

With the fast paced and changing social media aspect of journalism, rules need to be created and followed. There needs to be a definition spelled out for who is considered a journalist and who is not considered a journalist. I think people with backgrounds in journalism -- with a degree in journalism -- should be the only people considered journalists.
     
There should be ethical rules spelled out for social media use. It is pretty much mandatory that journalists use social media in today's world. There should be rules on posting information to social media; there should be an accuracy check before any posting.

Journalists with individual blogs and Twitters not associated with work should also have rules spelled out. They should use these outlets for impartial reporting -- no bias.