"Experts weigh pros and cons of social media" by Sandra Ordonez

There were two quotes from this article that really stood out for me: Trevor Butterworth's assessment of Twitter's ability to "create chaos ... instantly and without verification", and Matt Hinckley's belief that "too much information bouncing around at the speed of thought ... has only accelerated the pressure to be 'first' often at the expense of being 'right.'"

Prior to the internet (and to a lesser extent television), journalists and members of the "traditional" media had at least a day to check their facts before submitting their stories for public consumption; after all, "yesterday's news" is an acceptable timeframe when you're talking about an information-gathering environment comprised of newspapers and magazines (current events just couldn't get to the mass audience any faster back in the day).

However, now that social-networking tools make it possible to report on breaking news almost instantaneously (no need to wait for a beat reporter or a TV news crew to arrive when a lone bystander can simply open up her smartphone and record/tweet away), there's a lot of pressure to be the first one to report on and make comments about a story. This leaves almost no time for fact-checking or verification ... Rumors and hearsay that would have been heavily scrutinized (or even ignored) by newspaper reporters a mere decade ago are now being slapped onto their websites and Twitter feeds as fast as possible, just on the slight chance they can avoid being "late to the party" if it actually turns out to be factual.

The fear of being scooped by bloggers and the like is a real threat for those "traditional" members of the media nowadays, to the point where they are actually putting their readers in jeopardy of mistaking fiction for fact ... Journalistic integrity is being sacrificed in the name of instant gratification, and the (genuine) information-seeking audience is suffering as a result.

However, this is where another quote from the article gives me hope ... Terri Thornton asks how people in the future will "know what is a journalistic story and what is a paid, biased or fictitious post" and how to "tell a scam email from the real thing"; this is a role in which librarians can fit quite nicely, by educating their patrons via information literacy and teaching them how to better recognize the well-researched and factual information from the more spurious sources found online.