We Are the News

Two weeks ago, as we saw the full aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings, I started thinking about the way we gather our news and how the process has evolved over the years.

As I noted in an earlier post, as soon as the bombs went off, I headed to Facebook to see what was going on. Coming from a journalism major, that is a pretty big deal. After all, I wanted live action from the people truly affected and Facebook is a great way to get it.

The opinions are unbiased, sadly something that is not always common with traditional news outlets, but more importantly, you can feel the emotion when you gather news from your friends and family. I could watch CNN for exclusive interviews from those involved, but why not get the same from the people I actually know and trust? When you think about it, it's targeted news.

All the advances with iPhones, mobile and social media have allowed the public to become our own news source. It is truly one of the great benefits our society has seen from technology over the past ten years.

I no longer have to wait for the Sun-Times to report who won the Sox game. I no longer have to wait for a phone call to hear if the girl of his dreams said yes to the big question (which happened this weekend by the way). I can get the news as soon as they share it with the world. Once again, targeted news for me when I want it.

Who needs traditional news outlets when you have your friends and social media? 

Social Media is the New News

If you have kept up with this blog, or many others for that matter, you have seen everyone and their mothers write about the Boston Marathon Bombings. Of the many lessons I have learned from this tragedy, one that stands out to me is that our entire nation is starting to view news in a different manner from different sources.

As a former journalist, as soon as news broke of the two bombings, you would think I would head to The Boston Herald or The New York Times. Not in 2013. The first news source I went to was Facebook. After doing a little digging, I found out I wasn’t the only one. Instead of hearing from the professionals, I wanted to see and view the story through the eyes of my friends and family. Just saying this puts a cringe in my stomach, but that is the way our world is going.

Who can blame us? When every citizen out there is their own reporter, with smartphones capable of taking HD video or photos and instantly posting them online, why wait for the dinosaurs to report? We now live in a day an age of the 24/7 news cycle and with the help of Vine, Facebook, Twitter and every other social network out there, professional news sources are losing credibility by the day.

I realize that any news I see on Facebook won’t be 100% accurate. Hell, it may not be 1% accurate. Nonetheless, the fact that a former journalist who still believes in the true power and responsibility of good reporting went to Facebook instead of an established news source shows that our world is truly evolving before our very eyes.

At school, they called the idea of citizens reporting the news citizen journalism. Supposedly, this has been going on for centuries. I wonder if they ever knew it would get this far.

Where did you go online when you heard of the Boston Marathon Bombings?