In the
past, this blog has discussed how news information needed to be incorporated in
social media to be able to get an audience (Kolodzy, 2013). While that is true,
it has caused some issues as a result. Since social media requires immediate
attention, it has forced news companies to constantly be in a rush to be the
first to post news information (Kolodzy, 2013; Tandoc, 2014). This has created
a cultural shift to a world of urgency.
People want
information immediately (Kolodzy, 2013). They do not want a lag time between an
event happening and hearing about the event that happened (Kolodzy, 2013;
Malesardi, 2012). Social media has allowed this to occur. Social media has
allowed news companies to post news information the minute that it happens
(Kolodzy, 2013). However, there is a question of the accuracy in what is being
posted (Malesardi, 2012). It is impossible for news stations to report on
something the minute that it occurs without there being a possibly for mistakes
(Tandoc, 2014). With events, there are emotions running high, sometimes
something looks to be happening that is not, and oftentimes people want to
already have an answer for why something is occurring (Tandoc, 2014). All of
these facts actually take hours to work out for accuracy. However, now the audience
demands that information immediately. News companies are complying with that
demand (Kolodzy, 2013). However, as a result, there are mistakes in news reporting (Kolodzy, 2013;
Malesardi, 2012; Tandoc, 2014).
Urgency
does not only mean the urgency to get information out, though it does include
that. For news companies to be able to maintain the small audiences that they
have, there is an urgency to keep them (Malesardi, 2012; Tandoc, 2014). This
means that those companies are much more willing to adapt to what their
audience wants, as a result (Tandoc, 2014). That very concept perpetuates the
problem of urgency in the news even further. Because news audiences want
information through social media and want it the minute that it happens, news
companies are trying to provide that (Tandoc, 2014). In doing so, mistakes can
happen which circles back to how this cultural shift to urgency is actually
causing issues (Kolodzy, 2013; Tandoc, 2014).
This was
seen in the news reporting of the Boston Marathon. There were bombs exploding
at the Boston Marathon, and each media outlet was fighting to be the first to
post information about it. However “in the rush to uncover new information, the
media got it wrong… repeatedly” (Siddiqui, 2013). “Whether the coverage was on
television, in print or online, facts were misreported, suspects were
misidentified, and presumptions were made about unknown motives” (Siddiqui,
2013). These mistakes in reporting were a direct result of the media trying to
rush to be the first to post this type of information. This problem becomes
even worse when one media outlet posts wrong information that other media
outlets grab on to and repost (Tandoc, 2014). All of this need for urgency both
created by the media outlets and the audience is causing false information to
spread about events (Malesardi, 2012; Tandoc, 2014).
So how
does society go about changing this? This is a particularly difficult thing to
change because the Internet and social media have created a world of instant
gratification, so people want that same thing when it comes to the news (Kolodzy,
2014). The problem is that it is not realistic for the news to be reported with
100% accuracy the minute that it is occurring. As a result there are two
options for people. The audience needs to start understanding that they
may not be getting 100% accuracy in the news stories that they are hearing (Kolodzy,
2014). Or, the other option is for the audience to be willing to accept a
slower turnaround time for news information (Kolodzy, 2013). The urgency and
the mistakes resulting from that are becoming more and more apparent, so those
options are all people have to work with at this point.
References:
Kolodzy,
J. (2013). Practicing convergence
journalism. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Malesardi,
M. (2012). Advances in reporting. The Journal of Government Financial
Management, 61(4), 4.
Siddiqui,
S. (2013). Boston bombings reveal media full of mistakes, false reports. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/boston-bombings-media-mistakes_n_3135105.html
Tandoc, E. C. Jr. (2014). Journalism is twerking? How web
analytics is changing the process of gatekeeping. New Media & Society, 16(4), 559-575.
This infograph shows how social media is influencing news
reporting. This is so important because it is the fact that social media is
influencing news reporting that started the urgency in that reporting.
This infograph shows the impact of social media on the news
and how people get news information. This relates to social media allowing news to be reported the minute that it is occurring.
This infograph supports the information in this blog because
it shows the fact that now everyone has the ability to post news information.
This also explains the fact that there can be misinformation posted because of
social media and new technology.
References:
ING. (2014).
Impact of social media on news. Social
Embassy. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/ING/infographic-impact-of-social-media-on-news-sming14-36054221
Marino, K.
(2012). That’s old news! How social media is replacing traditional journalism
as a news source. Schools.com.
Retrieved from http://www.schools.com/visuals/social-media-news.html
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