The article written by John Dickerson titled “Don’t Fear
Twitter” is not only an opinion piece, it is simply idiotic. The overall claim
of Dickerson is that Twitter allows people to follow news like they never have
before. He says that “As journalists we take people places they can’t go.
Twitter offers a snapshot way to do this”. Dickerson is exactly right, Twitter
is a SNAPSHOT only! Since when have you ever heard someone say “oh just give me
a snapshot of your story and leave out the rest”. Dickerson’s statements claim
that people don’t need to hear the whole story or see the big picture of what’s
actually going on when it comes to the news. This is just one of many reasons
you can’t trust the media in today’s world; they have agendas and they never
tell you the whole story. In order for people to be truly informed, they have
to know what’s really going on. That means telling the context of the story,
any relevant background information, what source the information came from and give
the important details. The whole point of media coverage and/or journalism is
to inform the general-public with the truth. Twitter is just another way the
media can distort the real story and bend the true nature behind them. Going
back to Dickerson’s original quote, media does take us to places we can’t
necessarily go. But what he is saying is that he can take you to those places, but you must
wear earplugs and close one eye for the entire journey.
Dickerson also tries to back up his argument by providing
an example of when the planes hit the World Trade Center on 9/11. He states
that Twitter would have been a great way for the media to cover the story as it
unfolded. This
statement is both offensive and insensitive to the catastrophe of 9/11. Studies have shown that
many people who use social media for their news tend not to look at any other
sources for gathering information. How on Earth is someone supposed to
appreciate fully and empathize with an event as disastrous and inhumane as this
one if they simply get their news from 140 characters? Even if there is a link
posted to a real news article on the topic, the odds people will actually click
on that link are close to zero. People view Twitter posts for instant
gratification. People go on to Twitter because they want information and they
want it quickly and as simple as possible. Why would someone go on to their
Twitter account to view 140 characters just so they could go on to read an
article 100x that length? The answer: they wouldn’t.
To make a long conversation short, Twitter is not a
viable way to gather news information. A social media site such as this one
cannot provide accurate coverage of real stories without distorting them to one
degree or another. One cannot consider themselves informed if they only gather
news from one source, especially if that source is limited in the number of
words they can use to tell a story. People need to look at multiple sources and
gain all relevant information to have any sort of knowledge on a subject. The
definition of knowledge is: “Facts,
information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education;
the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.” Funny, I couldn’t
even fit that definition into 140 characters.
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