Rage Against the (New) Media

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

When I was in the second or third grade, my teacher had our class engage in an exercise about rumors. She lined up the 32 students in our class and whispered a message in the ear of the first student, and said "pass it on." By the time the message got to the end of the line the original message had been garbled beyond any recognition.

I was reminded of this yesterday. I was attending the Pima County Democratic Party Reorganizing meeting to attend a workshop ironically entitled "using electronic media more effectively." About a half hour before the workshop was to begin I was called out of the room and shown a text message that said "shots fired at Rep. Giffords event at Ina and Oracle." This was all we knew.

What followed next was an object lesson in everything that is wrong with the new electronic media. Before I had returned to the room, people's cell phones were going off with phone messages and text messages that there had been a shooting. Numerous unconfirmed reports began to spread like wildfire among those attending the meeting. Everyone was on cell phones contacting others and repeating every unconfirmed rumor they received. Much of the information was wild speculation and rumors — and wrong.

The mainstream media, which is supposed to be the "gatekeeper" required to obtain confirmation before reporting also reported this wild speculation and rumor — in particular that Rep. Giffords had been killed, which was later retracted. I cautioned people not to believe anything you are hearing until it has been confirmed by a law enforcement spokesperson. "But it was on NPR… or CNN." Sorry, but no.

The modern media has been infected by the new electronic media of Facebook, Twitter, texting, instant messaging, e-mails, etc. The new mainstream media credo is not "get me confirmation" but rather "better to be first than accurate… apologize later." The mainstream media has entirely abandoned its gatekeeper function to obtain confirmation before reporting in favor of reporting wild speculation and rumors in a running dialogue.

I witnessed the destructive force of this new media which touched off a firestorm of wild speculation and rumors that caused a panic and needless emotional pain and suffering to those listening for any news of the condition of those injured and who had been killed. It made me want to shout "Just stop! We don't know anything until we have confirmation from law enforcement."

The new electronic media is both a convenience and a curse. I don't know how anyone can contain a panic caused by wild speculation and rumor spread instantly by electronic media. This can cause havoc in a national emergency.

And that is the ultimate lesson of the workshop on "using electronic media more creatively" (responsibly) which was canceled after yesterday's events.