Social Media Creates an Inaccurate World

By: Eddie Madrid

Mass Media Industries Blog Staff Writer

BLUE BELL, PA--In May 2014, Indiana University’s School of Journalism reported that 40 percent of journalists said social media networks are “very important” to their work.  Over a third said they spend between 30 to 60 minutes each day on social media websites.

     The top social media platform used by journalists were microblogs, such as Twitter, with 53 percent of journalists saying they use it regularly. In addition, 80 percent of journalists said they regularly use social media websites to stay on top of recent developments.  Over 70 percent of journalists specifically cite using social media to check on what the competition is reporting on, find ideas for stories and stay in touch with the audience.  Only 25 percent of journalists agreed that social media has improved their own productivity and 6.3 percent said it decreased their total workload.

     Numbers show that professional journalists’ trend of using social media to obtain information has no signs of slowing down.  According to William Bender, a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News, “Now, [social media] is a part of everything. It’s unavoidable. If you put something out there, sometimes [the story] can catch on, and you might get twice, three times, ten times as much traffic if it gets picked up somewhere else.." He says reporters are not only responsible for writing the story but its distribution and status on the Internet.

     Social media has also opened the door for reporters to use the information their audience provides as their base of information for breaking news. Bender says this has led to multiple mistakes being made during breaking news  One such mistake was multiple news organizations reporting the wrong name of a bombing suspect during the Boston Marathon bomber manhunt. 

     “With the competition being so severe on the Internet, whenever something does happen, there’s this goal to get it first...I think the trend going forward is [the public is] going to get information that isn’t 100% accurate, and then gets more accurate over time." Bender concludes that the trend now is to get what you know out there and try to make it more accurate as you shape the story throughout the day or week.

     If the public does not call out professional journalism’s over-dependence on social media, then we are left in a society with news that is potentially inaccurate. Social media has put immense pressure on journalists to do everything faster, which tends to lead to more mistakes. The news is our connection to the world around us and it needs to be accurate and trustworthy.