Imagine what it would be like if the only news you could access was from a 140 character post on twitter. Now imagine if the only way you could get news out to your friends was via facebook. Some of you may say this imaginary world seems pretty similar to your own life right now. However, others simply could not picture a life without television, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc. The reason I pose these questions are because recently the occupation of journalist has come under fire. If people are getting all of their news and updates from other ordinary people around the world- what use do we have for journalists?
Why journalists may become extinct:
- Last year when a plane was forced to land in the Hudson River, the story was on twitter before it was anywhere else.
- Twitter was used to disseminate information during the riots in Iran when the rest of the world did not know what was going on.
- Survivors of the Haiti earthquake used twitter to display pictures and heartbreaking stories to the world
In our globalized and social media indulgent world it seems like absolutely everyone is a reporter/journalist of their own life. Whether people are writing blogs, tweeting comments for the world to see, or facebooking friends; it appears as though we have all become reporters and critics.
Naturally, journalists are worried and are fighting back. In order to prove that these forms of social media are not legitimate news sources, a social media experiment is being launched on Feb. 1st.
Experiment Details:
- Five journalists from different countries (including Canada)
- Will live in a French farmhouse for 5 days
- They will only have access to facebook and twitter
- No smart phones, no internet browsing capabilities, no tv, no newspapers, etc.
- Each reporter will research news updates via twitter and facebook and report live each day on a radio station to share their findings with the world
*Check out this article on Yahoo News for the complete details of the experiment
This experiment is going to be a showdown between the traditional media versus social media. If the journalists are able to find information to report solely from twitter and facebook that is ACCURATE and RELEVANT, what will the implications be? Will forms of social media put the more traditional media out of business?
Of course, social media does have it's drawbacks, and thus some expect this experiment to fail. There have been plenty of twitter hoaxes and so the reporters will have to sort through a lot of junk to find the truth. Some examples of twitter hoaxes include: a post about the death of Johnny Depp (clearly he is still alive), tweets stating that doctors and nurses can fly to Haiti for free to help out (I assumed this was true but was sad to find out that was not the case), and even a false tweet that the same sex marriage ban in California had been overturned.
Discussion
Clearly twitter is great for quickly spreading information. Considering that it is just as good at spreading false news as it is at spreading the truth, do you think that it will ever take over more traditional news sources? What do you think the implications of this experiment will be? Finally, considering that to an extent we have all become journalists, do you think this profession will eventually become obsolete?
To follow the 5 journalists and this experiment click here.
Check out this blog for more information about the experiment taking place.
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