2-3 BLog: Social Media and Truth

I know what I now what the internet. If it is on the internet it must be true right? Okay, I am just kidding. However, the majority of the information that I know comes from the internet some comes from books. I have been in the habit of checking the facts of everything I see on the net unless I believe the source to be reliable. Much of the information I come across on a daily basis is usually via a social media site. I found out about Sean Lee's devastating injury through Twitter because his name was trending.

I also found out about the recent trade that allows for Tyson Chandler to come back to Dallas. I believe that the information is true that I find out through Twitter is because there is usually a link attached to the tweet that leads to an article from a credible source like ESPN, for the Lee injury, or Fox Sports news that had the details of the trade that involved Chandler.

"(Social network sites) are ways of conveying information, but they do not dictate the nation of the content conveyed" (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 55).

On every break from work the first place I go is either Twitter or Facebook. It is not that the social network itself is the credible source, it is that they usually have a link to a credible source to back it up. I just do not believe information that some just tweets or post through a status. The times where the information if credible from social media is when there is a link leading to an article from a news source that gives more details. It is just like the links that the professor sent us in the email, one was she retrieved via a post from one of her friends. Even though the information was acquired through social media it was linked to an article from the AV Club. If it were a friend just stating through a status or tweet about the news I would not see it as reliable, I would want to have more information and most times it is provided through social media.

References:

Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2010). Blur: how to know what's true in the age of information overload. New York: Bloomsbury.

1-5 Blog: Influence of the Media

Image Credit: iRep Marketing

New media is a part of my everyday life. I stream radio from all across the country to hear what is being played in different areas. I also listen to a mix of news and everything through iHeartRadio and the day is not complete unless I hear a full cycle of Good Morning America. I do not spend much time watching television news and I rarely pick up a newspaper. I listen to multiple podcast to get me through the work day, most of which that talking about the current events and important sports news. Without new media my days at work would be really long and it has changed the way I live as mentioned in the picture. My phone is an extension of my hand like everything I look at is important.

 Social media has influence my perspective of events by getting them to me so quickly. Most of the "breaking news" I find out about is through Twitter. Of course, from Twitter I check to see if it is posted somewhere else. There are many stories that get passed around through social media that is not true. Twitter as killed many celebrities, some times twice. So in that way it is a negative influence. The positive is that information is always ready and available.