Famous author and American literary icon Edward Eggleston once said “Journalism is organized gossip.”
Eggleston died in 1902 but if ever there was a prophetic voice that would define post-millennial information trafficking, the Midwestern novelist provided it for us more than 100 years ago.
You see it everywhere, and it’s almost impossible to avoid.
Twitter. MySpace. Facebook. Social media dot coms have encumbered America to the point of dependency; checking your Facebook wall and scrolling down your Twitter timeline has become synonymous with having a cup of coffee every morning. In fact, it is fast becoming the Information Generation’s version of the daily newspaper.
There are many critics on each end of the scale when it comes to weighing in on the topic of social media. Many skeptics say that technology is unreliable, and that society would do well not to depend on it as much as it does. They also say that in terms of accurate news reporting, these lightning fast sources of information have the tendency to be dangerously unreliable since anyone is able to post anything at any time. The gatekeepers (editors and commissioners of print, television and radio) are almost totally taken out of play, leaving the end-user of the information to decipher the legitimacy of the information they receive.
I agree. As a journalist and an editor, much of my job consists of verifying the facts and maintaining accuracy. Responsibility plays a big role in delivering the news to its recipients.
However, I also believe that social media is a culmination of what the world has both wanted and needed. People want the latest news in the quickest amount of time possible. So, technology answered the call. And it has affected nearly every area of news, especially politics. Last year, Nick Schaper said “This is no longer a gimmick. This is how the American people want to receive their news and want to hear from us.”
Schaper, the news-media representative for House Speaker John Boehner, was referring to social media and the American public’s reliance on it.
Humans, by nature, are social creatures. Aside from catering to the wants and desires of our species, we have used communication in our society as a means of survival.
Consider the date Jan. 25, 2011. Thousands of protesters in Cairo and other large Egyptian cities took to the streets on a national holiday to speak out against the atrocities that faced their country on a daily basis. State police attempted to assuage the situation to the world at-large by brutality and media blackouts, but thanks to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter the world got a glimpse of the Egyptian experience. Organizers coordinated through a Facebook page, where they were able to take a stand against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment. One page called for protesters all over Egypt to gather after prayers Friday. Twitter began the trend #Jan25 to inform people of what was going on.
Despite the government’s intervention on the technological front, social media were able to make an impact on the situation in North Africa; it caused the eyes of the world to become fixed on the nightmares that people have been living in Egypt.
The gossip that is entrenched in social media is similar to a common cold, annoying and incurable. However, the organization that it brings to the world is as necessary as our dependency on each other.
So tell me, what’s new?