There has never been a time, I don’t think, where news can travel quite so fast, causing every emotion from joy and excitement to sadness to, more dangerously, anger and hatred, a pressure cooker ready to blow.
Just ask United Airlines, which was raked over hot coals after videos posted online showed passenger David Dao being forcibly dragged from the plane, or with news of an incident in which United staff would not allow two teenage girls, traveling as guests, to board because they were wearing leggings in violation of company policy.
In a small town, news seems to travel like rapid fire, and while talk and gossip used to find their genesis in coffee-shop exchanges, now, talk and gossip is fueled by non-face-to-face interaction via social media.
As journalists, we find social media to be an important tool – a way to connect audiences with stories, to find sources, and to learn about what people are talking about, and what they find newsworthy. Social media certainly drives some news stories, and reports become less about what editors might consider important or useful for people to know, and more fueled by what people will click to read online (which is why you see Macleans post a list of all the people President Donald Trump has called an idiot or a dummy, on the day after the Manchester bombing, instead of a report on the bombing itself).
But in this new era and shifting media landscape, with its focus on reader-driven content, I feel like we can’t lose sight of our responsibility to be – well, responsible. While certain times, people will post social media links and question, ‘Why aren’t you doing a story on x, y, or z?’ I try to explain (if given a chance) that we need sources to do a story. We have to go beyond social media to try and give a broader picture, to get the actual facts from the source or sources affected, not just a one-sided account or rant from a single person. To put it into simple terms - “A bunch of people are angry about something on Facebook” is not in itself a story.
Gathering sources and multiple viewpoints – especially in the case of politics when these sources are opposed or contradictory - can be a tricky, or challenging thing to do, but again, it’s our responsibility.
When a tragic incident like last Wednesday’s vehicle collision occurs, we could simply run an RCMP press release and nothing more. But to do that, again, I feel would be abdicating our responsibility to pay honour to the lives that are lost, to the fact that, in this case, men who were brothers, uncles, fathers, grandparents and sons are no more and will be mourned.
We continue to try our best to talk to you, the community members, about the stories important to you, about the people that are important to you, and to do your stories proper justice.
It’s our promise to you, and we aim to live up to it, week in and week out.
