I didn’t get my news this morning from The Independent or The Times web site. Not even the BBC.
Instead I opened Twitter and tuned into the stories being shared by network.
Among the messages of New Year goodwill there was news of Jonathan Ive’s knighthood, London’s firework party and the Euro crisis. The people in my Twitter network act on my behalf as a personal editor and share news content.
Blog posts, photos and YouTube videos combine with links from news sources. I navigate links in my stream or use apps such as Flipboard, Paper.li or Summify to create my own summary of news from my network.
The way we consume news has changed. We no longer sit back but instead participate in reporting, developing and sharing stories via social networks.
During 2011 Twitter rolled over numerous legal injunctions and broke major news stories. But for every example of where Twitter had a positive role in the development of a news story there are countless where it was used to push propaganda or tout inaccuracies.
Journalists are taught to separate fact from opinion and to second source news stories. But this rigour doesn’t exist in social networks. We all add our own opinion and bias to stories.
The safety mechanism should be your network. It should correct errors as mistakes and bias are called out by contrary and dissenting voices.
But is your social network sufficiently robust to overcome bias? If you’re concerned that it isn’t you might want to consider adding some alternative voices to your network.
Photo by Going Underground’s Annie Mole via Flickr. Thanks Annie!
