Twitter, a “micro blogging” has become a new trend to communicate, even celebrity and politicians use twitter. Despite the widely use of twitter, it is also known for its incredibility of its information due to the imposters and sources.
There are cases where fake social media accounts are created under the celebrity or company names which sabotage their reputations. This may eventually lead to incredibility of the system in people’s mind. Celebrity such as Miley Cyrus was once a victim on twitter where there was someone who imposed her to spread false information that affects her reputation (Owens 2009). I have been having doubt about the credibility of the tweet being posted especially when it is anonymous.
Twitter destroy of Journalism?
Nowadays, people know certain events through twitter before the news is on the paper. This is where journalism engaged in twitter. For instance, the earthquake in California published in Twitter report nine minutes earlier than the first Associated Press alert. According to O’Connor (2009), people tend to rely on Twitter for news unconsciously on a shared event. Organization such as New York Times and CNN also begin to use twitter. Although Twitter can be connected more quickly and efficiently, in the end it is not about being fast, it is about the trustworthiness of the news being announced or information being released. Some journalists may collect the information from Twitter and publish as the factual truth in newspapers. However, this information may not be true and accurate which may eventually destroy journalism. According to Perez Oliva (Moretzsohn 2009), there is a contradiction between speed and security where confirming the credibility of the information requires time. Thus, it is important to choose the sources that are trustworthy to decrease the risk of disclosing false news especially when publishing on print. Readers are unable to value the difference where they may trust the information published and may lack of time to evaluate the trustworthiness of the information.
Although Twitter may have reference for its postings, people will doubt the accuracy of the information due to the freedom in posting whatever they want. This is especially true for political issue where people may only cite to certain writer’s writing who may just express their own opinion without any academic references. This may eventually lead to false alarm to certain event. Sometimes, the information even circulating on the internet before any confirmation of the trustworthiness, however it happen too fast that sometimes it actually gets debunked (Carvin 2009).
Therefore, as an ethical publisher, one must make sure the trustworthiness of the information being posted on supported by some credible research and citation. This is to create a healthy information world on internet especially Twitter and other social network.
Reference List
O’Connor, R 2009, Global: Facebook and Twitter ‘Reshaping journalism as we know it’, Alternet.com, viewed 2 June 2010,
< http://www.alternet.org/media/121211 >
Owens, S 2009, How celebrity imposters hurt twitter’s credibility, Mediashift, viewed 2 June 2010,
< http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/02/how-celebrity-imposters-hurt-twitters-credibility051.html>
Carvin, A 2009, “Welcome to the twitterverse”, viewed 13 April 2010. < http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101265831>
Moretzsohn, S 2009, “ The ethical crossroads in the age of the ‘new media’”, Brazilian journalism research, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 22-36.
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