Social Media's use in Breaking News

Social media's role in diplomatic discussions is precarious enough. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are questionable ways to attempt sensitive discussions of international relations and diplomatic engagements, if only for the anonymity social media allows (which can be both a great thing and a terrible thing).

The anonymity of Twitter allows people to post anything they want - gossip, false facts, shocking tidbits - and this amateur reporting without accountability gives people a sense of power in knowledge (which is really just information sharing). This anonymity, combined with a global platform from which to frenetically tweet anything and everything, also makes for a rather stunning lack of perspective. For example, yesterday's events involving a gunman at The Discovery Channel's headquarters were all over the news before the completion of the occurrence. And by "news", it was not local TV or radio stations, not newspapers or any other typical form of mass media reporting researched facts and well-informed data.

Social media sites, Twitter being the leader in this case, were frantic with activity. Shocking pictures of gunman, half-baked facts and hasty reports were rampant, only increasing the tension in an already frightening situation. Before traditional media sources even knew about the event, Twitter and its picture-sharing counterpart, Twitpic, had already posted the story, fraught with inaccuracies, opinions and emotions.

There, of course, is nothing wrong with emotions or opinions. They are a normal, persistent part of the human experience; it would be unwise and unhealthy to ignore or try to eradicate them. Problems can arise, however, when the masses are given the opportunity to report such feelings and thoughts as actual facts. Social media does just that. While everyone is supposed to theoretically know that most if not all tweets are simply the personal expressions of the user, social media sites do not do much in the way of reminding its users of that fact. Social media does not offer discernment or critical thinking skills training, though both are desperately needed in the employment of social media.

Mainstream media is now relying on social media and its impossibly fast-paced, ever-updating culture as an alert system of sorts. Because social media is now, obviously, a mainstay in the current media-makeup, it behooves those involved in mainstream culture (which, to an extent, is all of us) to understand its uses and abuses. But, mass, public access to a site that provides anonymity (and no way to verify identity) while promoting sound-bite size reports from its users can create mounds of trouble if one is not careful.

News organizations in particular cannot afford to ignore social media sites, even though - or maybe because - they can no longer keep up with them. Because of the sheer size and pace of social media sites, no business can afford to ignore them, either. But sensitive stories like gunmen invasions being tweeted all around the world in less time than it takes to truly check for accuracy should be a reminder that social media, for proper and effective usage, requires strong filters.

Photo Credit: The Washington Post