Media Outreach

In light of the tragic airplane incident in Austin last week, I had some new light shed on the way people receive and report their news.

I had just finished a meeting and was on my way back to the office on Thursday morning when we saw black smoke. It wasn’t too far from us, so we drove over to it to find out what it was. Upon seeing the office building in flames and people running down the street, I immediately took my phone out and snapped a few pictures. My first thought was “Check Twitter to see what happened.”

I got back to the office and checked my Twitter account. Since the crash had just happened, there was little news anywhere on the Internet. I noticed a tweet from the local newspaper asking if anyone had pictures they could send them. I immediately sent my pictures, which ended up being the first to be retweeted by the newspaper.

Once the news stations started reporting and more people started tweeting, it was amazing at how quickly rumors spread. People were “reporting” what they saw and what they thought happened and really didn’t have anything to do with the truth of the event.

There was one interview with an official on the mid-day news where the official made a statement to reporters and asked them to get their facts straight before reporting on the event as there were many rumors going around via Twitter that were not true.

I thought this was interesting due to the fact that my first instinct was to check Twitter for what happened.  It also made me think about the way people are getting their news and what’s their “go to” when stuff happens. Oddly enough for me, it was Twitter since I knew reporters wouldn’t be on the scene, yet.

In social media, when an event happens, everyone becomes a reporter. Getting news updates via Twitter satisfied my need for instant information, but lacked the truth that I was seeking.

Some things we can learn about tweeting from this event:

1. Don’t speculate- Only tweet about what you know to be true.
2. Be skeptical – Don’t trust everything that you read on Twitter.
3. Be trustworthy – People read your tweets. You’re a reporter, so to speak. Make your tweets honest and trustworthy.

Photo By: _rockinfree