This is a guest post by Elynn Wareham is the Group Manager Corporate Technology at GCI Canada, past articles by Elynn are here.
As consumers of media – social or traditional – we must all learn the art of separating fact from fiction, but most importantly, we must all learn to exercise our inherent judgment, that of common sense.
The constructs of traditional media have always made it easy for us to trust. For the most part, we remained confident that there was a team of fact checkers and editors who made sure what we read in the newspaper was indeed the truth.
But even those constructs have had their limitations. Remember, Jimmy’s World, which appeared in the Washington Post on in the 80’s. Janet Cooke wrote a gripping profile of the life of an eight-year-old herion addict. She described the “needle marks freckling the baby-smooth skin of his thin, brown arms.” Janet returned her Pulitzer Prize when the article was proven to be a fabrication. Or dating even further back to when Orson Welles, adapted an episode of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds, fooling an entire population into believing they were being invaded by aliens.
As we usher in the era of citizen journalism made possible in the blogosphere, on Twitter and through social networks, we too must also become a generation of “citizen fact checkers.”
A 2009 Zogby Interactive survey indicated that when respondents were asked which information source they believed to be most reliable (television, internet, radio, or newspapers), nearly 40 per cent answered Internet compared with 17 for television, 16 for newspapers and a weak 13 for radio.
If a fortune teller on a busy downtown street told you that you were going to win a million dollars tomorrow and to sell off all your assets today, would you believe them? I hope not. So why would you believe everything that you see or read online?
Long gone are the days of the 24 hour news cycle. Let’s face the facts, we are approaching the 24 second news cycle or as long as it takes one to type 140 characters on a keyboard or Blackberry. We have become a generation of information consumers and information can’t come to us fast enough. For bloggers and for those that Tweet, getting the information out there first, whether it is completely accurate or not, is all that matters.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has said that when it comes to blogging, “Getting it right is expensive. Getting it first is cheap.”
So how do we navigate the sea of information that comes to us in tidal waves? How do we separate fact from fiction?
Here are few simple tips to help you keep informed with the right information in this era of the 24 second news cycle.
Truth is paramount. Follow bloggers who regularly identify that they are delivering information to you in real time and who are willing to correct the misinformation they have reporter. Follow companies to trust that have a reputation of providing accurate and factual information.
You can guarantee fast or you can guarantee accurate, but you can’t guarantee both. Remember the faster you receive the information, the less likely it is to be 100 per cent true. Use this as your gage and you will know when you can trust a piece of information or not.
Check a variety of online sources to verify information. The more information is reported, the more likely it is to be factual.
And above all, use your common sense. The age old saying – If it sounds too good (or juicy) to be true. It usually is. Common sense can be your best guide online.
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