Is social media and the desire to cover breaking news NOW hurting the media and its viewers?

As some of you may know, I find this topic fascinating. As someone who has watched the media format change in such a relatively short time, I can’t help but wonder if we’re (the media) going to be the destruction of our own demise.

Read this commentary by Associated Press writer, David Bauder. It highlights three recent hoaxes the media ran with, but also delves into social media’s impact on news and the lack of time to research and fact-check information. I can especially relate to the latter. After working in TV news for several years, I can attest to the fact that we pushed reporters to get the story and get it fast. We didn’t give them valuable time to research information. We were all about quantity and not enough quality. Not to mention, good reporters are hard to come by these days. Many of them are green and lack journalistic integrity. But, we put them on air because, well, someone needs to give you the news.

I left TV news 2.5 years ago, but I am still a journalist. I am still a writer. My husband still works in the field. I care about what’s happening, and I am engrossed in how it’s changing so fast. Just two years ago, when I produced a newscast here in Las Vegas, social media barely existed. MySpace was just becoming a tool for reporters looking for extra tid bits about someone. Twitter was relatively unknown. Now, videographers, also called photojournalists, are responsible for “tweeting” everything they see in the field. They have iPhone’s to record news as it happens and send it out to the masses. Who is fact-checking them? I’m willing to bet there is not a lot of oversight. A news organization cannot possibly monitor all the information its staff is streaming once they’ve given employees the green light and the tools to dispense “news.”

So what does this mean to news viewers and readers? Research already shows 63% of Americans believe news stories are inaccurate. In fact, many people are turning away from news altogether. They are skeptical. They think we are biased. Are they right?

How do you know who to trust and what to believe? When you read a blog, such as this one, do you know when I say 63% of Americans don’t believe the media is reporting the truth that my information is correct? Do you, a viewer, do your own research or just take my word?

There’s a lot of information (and misinformation) flying around the internet, between bloggers, facebookers, journalists and your average, everyday citizen who just wants to be heard. When does information overload become too much? When is our desire to consume news right NOW a fault of our own?