Who do we listen to?

Due to the rapid growth of the power of Social Media, journalists’ roles as the sole gatekeeper of information is drastically shifting.

The reality of Social Media is that anyone can create an account and publically share a statement. The statement posted can be true, it can be an opinion, it can be fake, or it can be the sharing of news- again either true, opinion based or simply fake. This phenomenon is known as Citizen Journalism, which is defined as the collection, dissemination, and analysis of news and information by the general public, especially by means of the Internet.

With an influx of information being shared by the general public across social media platforms, it’s important we examine and confirm the source prior to spreading the word. I’ve always enjoyed this guide provided by Reddit which serves as a useful tool for sorting out the credible from the fake. However, more often then not, users retweet, share, repost, etc. content without first confirming it’s validity. Typically headlines are all it takes to prompt a share.

Above is an example of how a headline from a Enews — which, please note is not included in the Reddit guideline shared above — crafted a headline to pop out to readers. When clicking at the headline, readers could easily believe the Jonas Brothers are touring in 2019.

Now here in this tweet we can see how quickly users jumped to believe it was indeed a confirmed tour. However, when actually clicking on the article and reading its content, one will learn that the band’s response to touring was “You keep asking us these questions we can’t answer.” Yet, Bailey had already spread the word to Blaire setting the tone that the tour is booked and they are indeed attending.

Granted, there are times when Citzen Journalism does play a positive and helpful role. For example, and shown in the video below, citizens who have witnessed police brutality have recorded the incidents on their cell phones and shared it with the public. On a social level this spreads awareness, but also can be used as evidence for an investigation.

Often credible news sources are guilty of not doing their due diligence in confirmed facts prior to reporting news. For example, multiple outlets reported that one of the victims of the Pittsburg Synagogue shooting last year was a Holocaust survivor. This was not true as stated in the Associated Press’ article below. Other examples of fake news as shared by professional journalists are also included.

In the end, we as users of social media platforms do indeed obtain the right to share and post what content we’d like. But, thinking back to the classic game of telephone, as statements are shared through many people, interpretation supersedes facts.

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