Advent of social media and blogging force readers to ensure validity themselves
On March 29, a blog post led to a whirlwind of publicity for South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. A Palmetto Public Record blog update reported that Haley was under investigation of tax fraud. A mere two minutes after it was published online, a writer for The Hill, a well-known political newspaper, tweeted about the article. Eighteen minutes after that, reporters from The Washington Post reposted the article. Throughout the day, journalists from other prominent news sources including CBS News and The Huffington Post reposted and provided further commentary on the article as if it were true.
Haley denied the reports and was able to produce a letter from the International Revenue Service that proved she was not under investigation. The scandal shows that people truly need to take the time to evaluate the credibility of their online sources. The Palmetto Public Record’s editor eventually confessed that he could not be sure whether his sources were correct. Essentially, the highly visible people that reposted information should have known better than to assume that it was correct. Reputable journalists are setting a terrible example to young and old alike that there is no longer any need to verify sources.
Other arguments continue to insist that this situation is no cause for concern, suggesting that Twitter is useful for news stories because it is easily revisable and constantly updated. This seems pointless if the information being distributed is completely illegitimate. And in this field of politics, inaccurate information can destroy a politician’s reputation whether or not it is correct. While Twitter is a unique platform for sharing thoughts and information, this scandal represents a real need for people to re-evaluate their social media use. Relying solely on tweets and Facebook posts for accurate news is not always intelligent. If trained journalists and reporters are not hesitating to share incorrect stories, one can only imagine the misleading stories that will circulate from the general public. People are all too willing to accept the material that they encounter online as true without ever questioning its validity.
These behaviors reflect a trend in society to rely on the Internet and others to give us the news that is popular and important. It must become a priority for people to analyze news sources from an early age. Technology users must also actively demand that journalists take a greater responsibility for the items that they choose to repost and share with their followers. The Internet has to be held to the same level of standard that print newspapers and television stations have been. If it is not, the number of inaccurate online reports will only increase as the Internet continues to deliver news to more and more people across the nation. Extensive thought and care should be put into evaluating online sources so that the American public is better educated about the events that are truthfully taking place across the nation.