If You're not First, are you Really Last?

Kaitlyn Marshall
km934711@ohio.edu
Makeup Blog for 11/3

Social media has opened up many doors for journalists to tell their stories. Whether its tweeting breaking news on twitter, vining about conflict in Ferguson, or even sharing an article on Facebook, journalists are using social media to their advantage. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 30% of adult Facebook users are using Facebook to get their news. While this may make it seem like social media is the end all to be all for news it most certainly has it faults.



While most of us are connected via some form of social media, we as journalists have to remember that our first duty to the public is to do as little harm as possible. That being said, when we tweet out breaking news or tweet out a story it should face the same scrutiny as it would to get to print, go online, or go on air. We have to make sure what we are telling the public is in fact, fact.

Social media is a great tool to be used by journalists. It provides us with a captive audience who can tune in at any time around the clock to get their news. However, if we want that audience to continue to return and trust us as a reliable source we have to be reliable. We want our viewers to be loyal and in order to make sure we have a loyal viewer base we have to be honest to them as well.

Gen Xers like myself who have grown up with the internet are now being taught to watch what they put online. “Don’t post that if you want to get a job” is a tune that is constantly tooted to us and that many in my generation know far too well. We are told to keep ourselves safe and to always think before we post. Why is the same practice not drilled into the heads of every person who heads the social media for anyone who is claiming to provide the world with hard news?

In the days before social media there was more time left to check sources, however now with the onset of 24/7 news and getting it as fast as possible, there is bound to be something that is lost in the translation. Sadly for all of us, the thing that gets lost sometimes is fact and getting that time to fact check. Everyone is so obsessed with being first that we have lost touch with what is really important. When CNN first broke the story of the Boston Bombings 2 years ago, in the race to be first, they got key elements of the story completely wrong. Do we as journalists need to take a step back to evaluate what matters more to us? Getting the facts out, or breaking the story? Social media is both a blessing and curse to the news media. We hope to keep citizens informed, but we have to make sure we keep them informed with facts and not with the sensationalism of being the first ones to get a story online.