I am not entirely sure if anyone else has noticed this, but as of maybe about a month (possibly longer) ago, major news stations and programs have started using Twitter for… well, to replace their actual reporting content. I mean, even CNN (yes, the one and only) uses Twitter.
For the past few days I’ve been following some of Obama’s speeches on CNN and I often hear the host say something along the lines of “Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Tweet us about ____________!”. And then, in about half an hour, they will “report” on a bunch of people’s Tweets. Now, I don’t mean to disrespect the valid opinions of others on the Internet, but I don’t turn on CNN for listening to often misinformed, disillusioned, and biased personal opinions. Actually, that’s not too far from the good old CNN we grew up with. Then again, at least with the old CNN they didn’t need to place a “CANNOT BE VERIFIED” label in the corner whenever they “report”.
What is even more disturbing is that CNN also takes material from other reputable Internet sources such as FACEBOOK and MYSPACE and handles it in a similar way. Yes, more of those “CANNOT BE VERIFIED” and “ONLY POTENTIALLY TRUE” stickers. I’m not usually a big follower of news or politics or anything like that, but this is one time where I find the trend and growing tendency towards relying on online information exchange inappropriate and mostly idiotic. I wonder how the reporters–who have likely gone through years of journalism studies–feel, now that they’ve essentially passed on their responsibility to truthful journalism to the loudest of our beloved Internet.
Totally ridiculous if you ask me.