How do I know what I know? Truth is, I don't. I am making the same assumptions as others and placing my trust in certain news sources, and hoping they are correct. In the book Blur by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, they mention the dichotomy of faith versus fact, but I think that faith influences fact. The facts I choose to believe are facts, and those in which I get from people and sources I trust, which means that the facts are based purely on faith. It doesn't matter where I read that information, could be a blog, work, or on television-- if I trust the person I will generally think that they are speaking the most factual story they know. If I have any reason to doubt them, or if the story piques my interest I will look deeper for more information.
Take what I learned today-- that Ex-Patriots tight-end is not only being tried for the murder of semi-pro footballer Odin Lloyd, but also a double homicide that occurred in Boston last year. Apparently he drove up behind two people at a red light, he was driving an SUV with Rhode Island license plates, and shot them both. Now I got this information from a couple Twitter accounts, from the Boston Globe, CNN, ESPN and the Onion Sports Network all on Twitter-- they were all released around the same time, even though the Onion was a satirical network. The facts stayed about the same, that he was already arrested for the murder of Lloyd, but also being connected to this other murder in Boston last year. What is interesting, was that the Patriots are doing a Hernandez jersey trade-back for any new jersey in their ProShop. This act makes me think that these connections have had such a negative impact on the name of Hernandez that they not only released him from their roster, but also are trying to assist the community in trying to release him as well. I believe that these accounts are true-- that he was arrested for all three murders because I received my info from multiple sources-- even though they were all on Twitter! While Twitter gives me the headlines and basic facts-- the 5 Ws, and an H as described by Kovach and Rosentiel-- where does social media play a role in providing credible information?
Where do social media sites fit into the journey for truth? I find it difficult to find a complete answer-- does 140-160 characters limit the facts? or make them even more important? I can't help but think that Twitter does more to spur my interest in current events around the world. where I will see a snip-it of a news story-- just the headline even--I will be interested to search for more information through other news sites. Sometimes I will open ten sites all about the topic at hand and read everything. But at the same time Twitter does not do everything-- if I don't look beyond Twitter I will not get the full story, I will only get the facts that are deemed "tweetable".
This is where social media plays a role-- it is only important in conjunction with other news information.
-Abbey
Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Module 1: Let's talk about new media
What forms of new media do you use daily?
Blogs:I am currently involved with three blogs, one personal blog, one Music news blog, and one blog without a focus-- kind of an anti-blog.
Micro-blogs: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and other social media outlets are forms of micro-blogs I use most of these daily to keep up with friends and family and tell them about where I am and what I am doing.
Forums: Nearly all websites that are currently in existence has a comment section, which makes it a forum for readers to post thoughts creating an instantaneous feedback loop between readers and producers. This is the backbone of new media-- the ability for dialogue and adaptation continuously.
Cell phone: the reason I put cell phone into this category of new media is for a few reasons. 1) Every action on a current cell phone is instantaneous, calls, texts, pictures etc. 2) A majority of cell phones currently have "smart" capabilities which make it a mini computer.
Instant Messenger/email: In my career I have to use a Office Communicator to discuss work/hold meetings with peers in other states, regions and countries. These communicators are a form of new media as they provide a simple and instant way of communicating with others.
How has new social media influenced your perspective of events?
On a shallow level-- these forms of new media make me hyper aware of events in the world-- I can access anything at anytime and I am updated on every event even if I didn't read on it, or hear about it, through a news source or viable contributor myself. I can scroll through Facebook or Twitter and get a glance of the world's happenings.
On a more severe level-- these forms of new media have also changed how I interact with learning about events and how long I stay dedicated to them. First, it can make me lazy- where I know that I don't need to read news sites daily as I can generally find out local and global news by reading my Twitter feed. Second, social media has influenced my attention span-- meaning news stories change rapidly and I will only pay attention as long as it is in the current media outlets I use. Lastly, social media outlets make certain news worthy stories never on my radar. I have created lists of people, politicians, regions etc to follow to get my news, which means that other information doesn't enter my scope unless I find information from another individual who has different values and interests than me.
Are these positive or negative influences?
Depends on how you spin it-- I think all of these influences are both positive and negative-- first I know that I am not lazy and will read the news but I don't have to everyday because others do it for me. I find it hard to believe that this is all negative--hell, how did people learn about events pre-wide spread old media? They found out from friends and family, people they trusted in their everyday lives. I am doing the same thing with who I follow on Twitter!
I do think that my attention span changing is the biggest negative influence-- only that I am finding it harder to put together events in a larger picture scenario-- this comes later from discussions with friends and family. However, I have noticed that my attention span is more invested for that short period of time. For example, I was in NYC when Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Crazy weather hit. I was stuck in my apartment complex with zero transportation for 2 weeks straight-- no classes, no employment, no money, running out of groceries. But I was lucky that my electricity and access to cable/internet only went down for 20 hours. Which means that I was able to focus on the happenings and could find out where charger pop-ups, food donation and shelters were located throughout that time. I wasn't the only one hyper focused on these events of course, but events like this take all of my attention until there is some resolution. Same with any other news that I encounter.
That brings me to the last influence-- I think this is neither positive nor negative-- we've been censoring the information we receive forever. This is not new, we are just doing it in more ways and with way more control. No longer is it turning off the TV or changing the channel-- now it is blocking those channels altogether. But that information finds ways of getting through always, so it really isnt creating any harm in my understanding of others' opinions.
Blogs:I am currently involved with three blogs, one personal blog, one Music news blog, and one blog without a focus-- kind of an anti-blog.
Micro-blogs: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and other social media outlets are forms of micro-blogs I use most of these daily to keep up with friends and family and tell them about where I am and what I am doing.
Forums: Nearly all websites that are currently in existence has a comment section, which makes it a forum for readers to post thoughts creating an instantaneous feedback loop between readers and producers. This is the backbone of new media-- the ability for dialogue and adaptation continuously.
Cell phone: the reason I put cell phone into this category of new media is for a few reasons. 1) Every action on a current cell phone is instantaneous, calls, texts, pictures etc. 2) A majority of cell phones currently have "smart" capabilities which make it a mini computer.
Instant Messenger/email: In my career I have to use a Office Communicator to discuss work/hold meetings with peers in other states, regions and countries. These communicators are a form of new media as they provide a simple and instant way of communicating with others.
How has new social media influenced your perspective of events?
On a shallow level-- these forms of new media make me hyper aware of events in the world-- I can access anything at anytime and I am updated on every event even if I didn't read on it, or hear about it, through a news source or viable contributor myself. I can scroll through Facebook or Twitter and get a glance of the world's happenings.
On a more severe level-- these forms of new media have also changed how I interact with learning about events and how long I stay dedicated to them. First, it can make me lazy- where I know that I don't need to read news sites daily as I can generally find out local and global news by reading my Twitter feed. Second, social media has influenced my attention span-- meaning news stories change rapidly and I will only pay attention as long as it is in the current media outlets I use. Lastly, social media outlets make certain news worthy stories never on my radar. I have created lists of people, politicians, regions etc to follow to get my news, which means that other information doesn't enter my scope unless I find information from another individual who has different values and interests than me.
Are these positive or negative influences?
Depends on how you spin it-- I think all of these influences are both positive and negative-- first I know that I am not lazy and will read the news but I don't have to everyday because others do it for me. I find it hard to believe that this is all negative--hell, how did people learn about events pre-wide spread old media? They found out from friends and family, people they trusted in their everyday lives. I am doing the same thing with who I follow on Twitter!
I do think that my attention span changing is the biggest negative influence-- only that I am finding it harder to put together events in a larger picture scenario-- this comes later from discussions with friends and family. However, I have noticed that my attention span is more invested for that short period of time. For example, I was in NYC when Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Crazy weather hit. I was stuck in my apartment complex with zero transportation for 2 weeks straight-- no classes, no employment, no money, running out of groceries. But I was lucky that my electricity and access to cable/internet only went down for 20 hours. Which means that I was able to focus on the happenings and could find out where charger pop-ups, food donation and shelters were located throughout that time. I wasn't the only one hyper focused on these events of course, but events like this take all of my attention until there is some resolution. Same with any other news that I encounter.
That brings me to the last influence-- I think this is neither positive nor negative-- we've been censoring the information we receive forever. This is not new, we are just doing it in more ways and with way more control. No longer is it turning off the TV or changing the channel-- now it is blocking those channels altogether. But that information finds ways of getting through always, so it really isnt creating any harm in my understanding of others' opinions.
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