This article definately made sense to me. I was at work when TMZ put out the news that he had died, and anyone and everyone at work with internet on their phones was trying to find out more details. It was definately putting social media to the test to find out the truth. The way this news spread was very interesting to me. I’ve found that recently I get more news from my friend’s facebook status then from an actual news media source. The article mentioned the amount of tweets the news recieved and how it was the most tweets since election time. This to me shows that we use our social media to share our opinions about things that are important to us, and relevant to us right in this moment. Some chastise new media for its “shallow” uses, such as the mass amounts of people weighing in on Michael Jackson’s death and surrounding circumstances, but I also feel like its definately a good way to get the word out in both personal news and more universal news.
–Christina
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6 comments
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November 9, 2009 at 10:28 pm
paigelav
I totally agree! I get a ton of my information from new media. In the past few weeks alone, I received news of several big stories on Twitter, including Balloon Boy, the Fort Hood & Oklahoma shootings, and the results of the most recent elections. I think as long as you verify your facts with a credible source, social media can be a fine place to get news.
November 9, 2009 at 11:05 pm
politicsnewmedia
I definitely get a ton of my information and news from new media sources. I check the trending topics on Twitter constantly and whenever I see something interesting I explore a little further. I try to stray away from Facebook status updates (basically because I don’t trust most of the people I’m friends with on there for my news). However, if I see that enough people are updating about the same piece of information it will make me want to look up exactly what’s going down.
November 10, 2009 at 2:33 am
mkwpnm
I’m amazed by the amount of news that I’ll see first on a friends status, but then validate it with some traditional type of news outlet. It’s great that word-of-mouth can spread news so quickly, but the only bad part is how easily the facts can get distorted :-/ It’s like that telephone game that teachers always make kids play to show how much gossip can stray from the facts lol
November 11, 2009 at 3:22 am
Alex McP
I know I was about Facebook when Patrick Swayze died. I had to try so ridiculously hard not to make a ‘Ghost like Swayze’ reference. I publicly wondered if Whoppi Goldburg was going to attend his funeral (again watch the movie ‘Ghost’). Social media has kinda made things like that a joke to me. Which really isn’t good at all.
November 11, 2009 at 4:30 am
ahadfiel
I definitly get a lot of news from my friends’ Facebook statuses. It seems almost silly how many people will post statuses about the same exact thing (a celebrity death, winner of a sports game, etc.) but it definitly keeps me informed when I am logged on.
November 11, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Deb
Before social media, The Daily Show was the main source of news for young people. Yet, traditional news outlets still remain the most credible, as evident from how people would turn to them to check accuracy. I’m fascinated by Alex’s comment about how social media trivializes news. It makes you think how new media impacts the credibility of journalism.