Should Twitter be News?

[Laika]

Hey everyone.

I was scrolling through the guardian's articles this morning and found myself wondering whether peoples "reactions" to stories or comments on twitter deserved to be reported in the news.

(Its this article which I'm surprised even got reported as a news item at all:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...arks-anger-with-nazi-style-halloween-costumes )

Maybe I'm behind the times and newspapers are trying to adapt to new social media but it just seems to erode the standards of journalism and misses out "other" stories with more substance for the convience of writing about what goes on within the internet bubble (rather than "why" thats the case).

Should Twitter really make the news or is does this trivalise Reporting with internet gossip? Is this normal for news sources you use?

 

[Tumah]

How is it different than when news reporters interview people on the street for their reactions?

 

[Laika]

How is it different than when news reporters interview people on the street for their reactions?

Shouldn't the news inform people's views rather than simply report them?

In "low-information" subjects like breaking events and you need to fill airtime- ok- I get it. But thats more due to the 24/7 junk-media culture where you fill up airtime and have manufacture sheer volume with kittens getting stuck up trees.

people's opinions are not of equal value and not equally valid or true. I'm not seeing why Twitter should be reported even if it may be useful to give reporters leads to follow up and investigate. Its where those leads go thats important. it just seems like sloppy reporting.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

What the article did was really no different than asking a bystander/witness of an event their thoughts for a direct quote, and with such an event posing the geographic-limitations it does, I would say for this situation Twitter/Facebook replies would be appropriate for use.
Now, had this Justin been there are the concert when it happened and he took to Twitter instead of asking others who were there, he should quit journalism.

 

[Sara Thinks]

I like the idea, it would be like breaking news, precise headlines with links leading to the main, more detailed news. BUT i doubt the authenticity! All news that we see around are always questionable because media truly is in the power of wrong hands! There is double standards, deception,bring attention on something less important in order to drive people's focus away from severe issues.