Should journalists verify before they tweet?
After passing along bad information about Piers Morgan, journalists discuss if it's acceptable to pass along unverified information on Twitter, as Reuters' Felix Salmon contends, or they should hold off until they confirm it.
Not surprisingly, many people said journalists should not pass along rumors and unverified information.
@Poynter @FelixSalmon My gut says shame on the journalistic Twittermongers. My head tells me Salmon may be on to an unfortunate truth.
The next time @FelixSalmon breaks news on Twitter, I'm going to RT it and say I "overheard it in the newsroom."
.@Poynter @antderosa @Felix Salmon Journalists are supposed to be in the news business. I can get rumors elsewhere.#tweetingrumors
@Poynter @FelixSalmon #tweetingrumors What ever happened to verifying information? The credibility of the media suffers when we don't.Some people said they think journalists should be able to pass along information without vetting it as long as they state that it's unverified, or if they indicate the source.
@lheron @antderosa: it is important to remember that our followers (theoretically) trust us, so incumbent on us to check things before RT- @lheron @antderosa: or at least to acknowledge that we have not confirmed whatever we are RT'ing
@myersnews Ok to tweet a rumor if it's clearly identified as such & remember to always indicate your source in ALL news tweets, rumor or notBut one person can break that chain, leaving everyone downstream to simply trust the reputation of the person they heard it from.
I RTed @antderosa because I trust him. If he had noted he was getting info from another tweeter, I would have checked out that acct (2 of 2)In fact, the journalist who picked up the hoax tweet didn't cite the source on his own.
@lheron @mathewi @lfmccullough by not citing his source, he became the source (as did I by stupidly not citing @jonsnowC4)- Heron pointed out that the old-school rule of attributing information to sources applies to Twitter as well.
- @AntDeRosa @mathewi @lfmccullough Then that goes back to my golden rule. Cite your sources! Solves many problems :)
- Citing sources helps people track the information. But is it enough?
@myersnews not saying it won't happen, but we should guard against it and certainly train journos to vet accts.Mai Hoang, a journalist at the Yakima Herald, revised her thinking after seeing that the tweet appeared to have originated from a hoax account.
