Paul Carr, a writer over at TechCrunch, wrote a thought-provoking article centered around citizen journalism in the moments following the Fort Hood shootings last week. As many of you are probably aware by now, several Twitter users passed what turned out to be entirely false information to major media outlets. Those “trusted” news sources, including CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, reported the information – including statements that the shooter was dead – as fact.
This whole incident has clearly been a disaster for news organizations and it’s going to leave a big black mark on the citizen journalism movement. What do you guys think about it, though? Do you think that citizen journalism is a good thing? Who do you think is more to blame for spreading false information – the people spreading it in the first place or the people reporting it as breaking news?
I blame the news outlets for not fact-checking. It’s not difficult.
Irresponsible journalism isn’t exactly new. The fact is, when you’re trying to sort facts in a chaotic situation, initial reports will often be erroneous. There’s nothing to do but wait until there’s a general consensus on information, but media outlets are always in a hurry to out-report one another, so they’d rather report something incorrect than not report anything at all.
Anyone believing anything out of any media outlet these days really needs to consider first and foremost that they are viewing it according the filter of their choice– so if a hip shot, opinion oriented network is what you flock towards, it shouldn’t be shocking they routinely put out rumour vs fact– they simply have to fill the time with something and so-called citizen journalists are free, practically blame proof and already on the scene. Even if they are outright lying, who cares (the rationale will go)? You’re watching and therefore ads are selling.