If you’re anything like me, chances are you’ve heard about some pretty big news stories on Twitter before they hit the traditional news sites. The most memorable for me was the death of Michael Jackson. I saw Harvey Levin from TMZ tweet about Michael’s death and I immediately went to Google and some news sites to verify that it was true. Nearly 20 minutes passed before any other news agency had Michael’s death up on the Web. Go, Harvey Levin!
Sure, sometimes what’s tweeted isn’t accurate. But, oftentimes the really big stories break on Twitter before the news sites publish their stories. This infographic has some great stats about breaking news online and whether social media is replacing traditional media as the go-to news source.
Courtesy of: Schools.com
What do you think? Where do you get your news? Do you take stories that break on social media with a grain of salt or is that the first place you go to see what’s happening?
100% of people have heard news through the traditional media that has turned out to be false. Since “Dewey Defeats Truman” we’ve had many examples, exposed and hidden, of the MSM not getting the facts right. So it’s a straw man that Social Media is the source that can’t be relied upon.
In fact, you can pretty much rely upon the traditional media to have hidden biases — where Social Media folks wear them proudly. The HuffPo is obviously a liberal rag, and the Drudge Report conservative. So when you use them as information sources you can easily filter what they say. But the New York Times persists in the fantasy that they’re “neutral” and unbiased, as does CBS.
It would be nice if infographics, even this one, told the complete truth. Especially if aimed at children.
Social media do not respect privacy that is a good reason for not using them.What is so important with this hype.Everybody means mainstream.
Agree with DickCarlson – the traditional media gets it wrong quite often as well, and their biases are on display much of the time.
I’d check what I see on Facebook or Twitter, but I also pretty much rely on them to tell me if something important has happened in the world – I don’t read newspapers anymore, except online, and I don’t watch TV news.
Traditional media of all kinds is dying – just some (like newspapers) are dying faster. I’m pretty convinced that once sport is widely available through live streaming, TV broadcasting will be dead too.