The Nexus

When U.S. Airways flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River, it wasn’t the cameras or the reporters who got the news out to the public first.

Although many major newspapers and television broadcast stations were next to the crash, it was a Twitter user who first told the world what happened. First he posted photos and tweeted a play-by-play of the unfolding scene all before the rescue boats even reached the plane.

In less than four hours, the picture of the plane crash had already been viewed over 40,000 times.

It is not surprising to find the average teenager surfing websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. According to a study by the Institute for Public Policy Research, the average teenager spends more than 20 hours a week online on social networking sites.

On the other hand, in the U.S. Department of Labor’s American Time Use Survey, it stated that most teenagers spend an average of 10 minutes time reading for leisure outside of what they read while on the internet.

If someone wants to find out how to make the perfect omelet, they watch a YouTube video giving step by step instructions. Don’t know what a specific word means?

Just Google it.

We hear these things everyday, so much so that google has become a verb.

But nowadays, it goes further. Many people receive their news online off of websites like Twitter. However, getting one’s news off websites like Twitter and Facebook is dangerous due to lack of good journalism standards, objectivity and editing.

Every day, millions of Americans log into their social networking profiles, chat with friends and hear about the latest hot topics. The sheer number of people who are on the internet, sharing text, photos and videos, ensures that any one person is exposed to a lot of information.

However, though getting one’s daily news from these sites is more convenient, it severely compromises the standards of quality and accuracy.

When ABC News heard President Obama call Kanye West a “jackass” for interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, the scandal was tweeted without a thought. It didn’t matter that Obama was off the record when he said it; the news spread as if ABC had formally published the information.

Not only did the employees at ABC betray Obama’s right to confidentiality, but even after quickly withdrawing the information from Twitter, somehow the entire U.S knew about his verbal slip.

Although it is nice to get news quickly, the speed and convenience of Twitter and Facebook are leading to the degradation of quality journalism.

In any publication in print, Obama’s slip wouldn’t have been known, but because the internet is always available to anyone, everything can be spread throughout the World Wide Web.

However, this information does not undergo any editing or conform to the journalistic codes of ethics.

So, even though it is easier to get news online or from friends, we must not compromise quality news.

The best news one can receive is from an established publication where articles are edited, checked for facts and have quality standards of journalism applied in every piece.

Because every single Facebook update and Twitter status is written subjectively, any news is often biased, half-true, or exaggerated.

Basically, the publisher of the information is imposing their own personal brand on top of the cold, hard facts. But due to the fact that people receive this information from friends, they often don’t view the information they receive through these sites with the caution they need to.

Even though Kanye was the hottest celebrity on Facebook after his MTV stunt, is this really the type of journalism we want to continue receiving?