In the United States of America, the links between journalism and public reaction easily trace back to 1788 when the Independent Journal and The New York Packet published the original essays for the Federalist Papers serially, giving free rein to public commentary on the issues that were later to become The Bill of Rights. . The technology of the day that made that possible was the moving type printing press and improved delivery systems that brought the papers out to the public on a regular basis. Radio brought the news every day into peoples’ homes. However, public reaction to news changed radically when television brought the images from the Vietnam War into their living rooms. It is changing again as social media and mobile devices bring the news, and the ability to post commentary to people’s pockets. From Tiananmen Square to the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street, we saw seen how Social Media, Crowd Sourced Information, Blogging and Technology has forced Mainstream Journalism to provide coverage to issues the public decided was important. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube invite people to post, tweet and broadcast their current events and their reactions. Within moments, a police officer pepper spraying a protester can circle the globe. Within days, it can become an iconic image “shopped” into other photos, which then circle the globe again. This changing face of Journalism has raised a number of ethical questions. The standards for mainstream journalists are to be impartial and well researched. Social media and blogging more often is a biased reaction to an immediate event; it is a glimpse into what I see right now. This is far different from the “talking heads” we are accustomed to; the ones who read copy written and researched by a studio team then cut to the video from their team in the field. The passionate immediacy of social media has given new power to the citizens of the world. This created a host of ethical accountability issues for mainstream journalists including; the reliability of crown sourced information, the responsibility to address issues of immediate social concern, and the necessity to produce responsibly researched information in the brief time it takes for social media to broadcast images of the event a few times around the world. Different media institutions use a variety of methods to attempt to accomplish this. To understand the complexity of how social media is making journalism more accountable it is necessary to examine these methods in greater depth.
Some news sources are jumping in and actively using social, or crowd sourced media to its advantage. Al Jazeera and its web site The Stream are an example of this. They actively monitor social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype and Google+ to catch breaking news before any of the mainstream media giants; they were the first to pick up the live tweet of the bin Laden raid. They also provide a different prospective on the news as was seen recently on their coverage of International Woman’s Day. . It has been praised by everyone from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences that nominated it for a “Webby Award” to the United State’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton it offers “real news.” . At a time when many “Media Giants” are downsizing and trying to catch up with changing time Al Jazeera is actively expanding and seeking new journalists from around the world, especially in the United States and the rest of the Americas. On its web site “The Stream”, it has sections for breaking news that links to in depth coverage of topics. This combination permits them to break a new story with immediate public access to related, fully researched information. They also have links for journalists interested in joining their team. . Launched in November of 1996, Al Jazeera has expanded in both size and reputation at a time when many news outlets have experienced declines. Other print media is also taking advantage of tips and tweets from social media Steven Kreytak scooped the story about a plane that flew into an Austin office building with the help of a tweet from a friend. . Some stories reach media giants through social media to when they might have been otherwise suppressed as could have happened to the Syrian blogger in February of 2011. . This may make it not only a place to go to for the news, but also an example of how a news media outlet can combine social media sources with in depth professional journalism.
The Hartford Courant is an example of a local newspaper, which after a one of the media giants absorbed it, suffered losses in the changing media environment. They did not embrace the changing media environment as it evolved and although the Hartford Courant is “the country's oldest newspaper in continuous publication” a simple archive search only pulls up articles for the last couple of years. As alternative news sources evolved and grew, the Hartford Courant suffered steady declines from a peak newsroom staff of slightly less 400 in 1994 to 135 in 2009. . The Hartford Courant’s policy now encompasses a commitment to evolve its digital platforms along with retaining its determination to retain its commitment to investigative news coverage. This policy was reiterated when the Hartford Courant’s publisher, Rich Graziano announced further staffing cuts in July of 2011. The Hartford Courant is not alone. Recent studies show that newspapers are shrinking faster than any other industry in America. The United State’s Council of Economic Advisors that provides economic advice to the President recently announced economic trends that show the industry is down by 28.4% in the last 5 years. That makes them “ dead last in a down economy ” .
While this industry down turn has hit some journalistic staffers hard, others who embraced the changing environment have thrived. An example of this can also be seen in Connecticut. George Gombossy, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, created his own place in the present media environment by actively utilizing social media. After leaving his former position as Business Editor of the Hartford Courant, he created his own niche by launching his own CtWatchdog web site and engaged his talents developing a strong readership base through the skillful use of social media sites such as Facebook and Linked In. . He now continues to pursue his career as an investigative journalist, specializing in consumer issues, but on a digital platform that does not require the vast network of newspaper distribution sources that a conventional newspaper requires. This streamlined delivery of information makes it possible for a small, specialized information source to provide immediate and in depth coverage of issues. This would not have been possible without social media and crowd sourced information. This evolving social and crowd based information souring and distribution network has benefited media resources like Ct Watchdog in several ways; by remaining active on a number of social media sites Gombossy, and others like him, are in tune with the pulse of currently relevant issues. They start investigating issues before the giants know what is happening. As skilled investigative journalists, they can source and determine the validity of the “buzz on the web” and post the correct and unbiased information. Finally, social media provides the distribution of information through its series of blogs, links, tweets, and likes no printing press required. Having the socially relevant issues along with professionally sourced background information, available for immediate distribution has forced the media giants lumbering along in the wake of these nimble specialists to address issues they may not have noticed, or even may not have considered for publication. In this way social media and the journalists who embrace it, has made mainstream journalism more accountable.
Another media source that has benefitted from the evolving social media news environment is the Huffington Post. Social media drove it from a liberal commentary blog launched in 2005 by Arianna Huffington to become a true challenger to the media giants. In 2011, AOL acquired the successful mass-market news source for $315 million U.S. Dollars, definitely no 28.4% loss here. A great part of the Huffington Post’s success is attributable to its willingness to embrace social media as both an information source and a distribution venue. The Huffington Post started out as a blog. Readers are invited to comment on the issues addressed in the articles and distribute their comments, along with a link to the article, to a couple hundred of their best friends and associates. This enabled a small blog with a few skilful and talented staff workers to grow to become a force in the mainstream journalistic world. Their willingness to address issues over looked or avoided by mainstream media pushed them to the forefront as people passed the message on with their blogs, tweets and posts. From the onset, all the articles included easy to use links to facilitate the distribution though out all the popular social media sources. By following the various “threads” created as the posts circulated, the publishers were able to continue monitoring the crowd sourced information to provide follow up articles. All these articles included cross-links to previous articles so that a curious reader can follow the current event back to its foundation. The Huffington Post covered the movement. They were one of the first mass media outlets to provide coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In their articles, they invited readers to share photographs and reports about Occupy Wall Street events from around the country. This information was included into the Huffington Posts reports and cycled out again to the people who contributed to the article. However, when it was sent out again it was well researched, validated and had all the links it needed to circle the globe.
The Occupy Wall Street Movement itself is an example of how social media drove mainstream coverage and drove mainstream journalistic accountability through crowd based information sourcing. The mainstream media provided no coverage at all in the beginning of the movement. However, posts, tweets, likes and videos were put out by Occupiers and witnesses until the “media first responders” started picking them up. When the police banned mainstream media from the “clean up” activities, they could not shut down the cell phones and other small digital media recorders from catching the images. They also could not stop the images from being tweeted and posted to a few hundred, then a few thousand people. This social coverage multiplied itself exponentially until images like the grandma getting pepper sprayed engaged and enraged the public to demand greater mainstream coverage. This crowd based sourcing and social media distribution finally forced the media giants to take notice and finally provide coverage on an issue they might have otherwise never acknowledged. When the large media outlets attempted to dismiss the Occupy Wall Street Movement as a temporary phenomenon that would disappear when winter cold set in social media once again forced them to admit that it was alive and well, despite the winter’s cold. For every slanted article that did not present the facts there were a hundred tweets, post and videos to counter it and provide the truth. This is another example of how social media forced mainstream media to be accountable for covering all the issues the public is interested in.
Social media also took the development of the “iconic image” on step further. When the Vietnam War projected the horrors of war into peoples’ living rooms a few iconic images, like the child running from a napalm assault remain as a part of the nation’s images of war. The Occupy Wall Street Movement and Photoshop took the iconic image one-step further. When the video was posted of the “storm trooper” police officer pepper spraying the peacefully kneeling protesters the video went viral. Then the image of the trooper went viral. Then it got photo shopped into other images; everything from the Statue of Liberty to the Mona Lisa turned up with a trooper marching past peppering spraying the face. Around the world again and again nerds, pundits, grandmas and gurus LOLed and passed on the newest and best images. Mainstream media had no choice but to do the follow up. After all, everyone knew that it was the protesters that were the peacekeepers and the “civil servants” that were the violent aggressors and they wanted their news media to provide accurate coverage on why this was allowed to occur, and what was being done about it.
There is another group of influential social forces that have come into play, as people are forcing ever greater coverage of issues is the effect of web sites and e-mail. Older individuals may not be up to tweeting, but they do know how to forward an e-mail, open a web site and they are “old pros” on how to sign petitions. Move On was the first to gain International recognition of how this kind of “grass roots” networking could shift public awareness. The Tea Party and Coffee Party followed in its wake using the same on line and real time social interaction of like-minded individuals. However, there is another group of web sites that provide a means for individuals to speak out and petition for redress of socially uncomfortable issues that do not have far-reaching media coverage. Some of these issues would never have reached media awareness until ten, or fifty or one hundred thousand people signed petitions demanding everything from preventing the bail out of AIG to forcing the USDA to stop feeding “pink slime” hamburgers to unsuspecting school kids. Websites like CREDO Action have lists of petitions that their followers can click and sign. Then they can forward, tweet and post the article, and petition to a few hundred, or thousand of their best friends and associates, and around it goes again. The petition is submitted to the appropriate decision maker, and the statistical information distributed to the media. The politicians and pundits can no longer ignore this influence from social media. Rush Limbaugh is heading towards being a loser in this social world of corporate and media accountability. Immediately after his derogatory comments about the Georgetown law student who testified before Congress regarding women’s birth control issues, the petitions started. In a few short weeks, advertisers started dropping off. It has yet to be seen if this petition activity will be sufficient to have his show cancelled. However, it has reduced his influence. .
The question no longer is if social media and blogging has made journalism more accountable, it is determining how far reaching that influence is going to be and how it is going to take shape as it evolves. A pattern is evolving. The cohesive forces of social media tend to bring people into ever-larger units. When they reach a certain “tipping point” and “go viral” the greater media and political units then attempt to infiltrate, purchase or otherwise assume control. This happened with Move On on the political left, the Tea Party on the political right and the Huffington Post with AOL. Petition sites like Credo invite subscribers to sign and submit petition requests. The Hartford Courant slowly disintegrates and loses over half its news staff, and the Connecticut Watchdog emerges. In the ever-evolving world of social news media and crowd, sourced information change is the only thing of which we can be sure.
Works Cited
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Gosselin, Kenneth R. "Courant Trims Newsroom Jobs." The Hartford Courant 7 7 2011.
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Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison and John Jay. The Federalist Papers. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam Inc., 2003 (1788).
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