Many people have wondered lately as to why the paper reports breaking news as soon as it happens.
Despite the fact that this has been done since time immemorial, for some reason it has once again become a point of discussion on The Chief’s Facebook page.
So, why?
In reality, it’s become more necessary than ever. First, it provides valuable information for people in affected areas, such as places to avoid, where help may be needed, and so forth.
But perhaps even more important is this — with the advent of social media, speculation has never had a stronger voice.
Following any major event, people inevitably do their best to make guesses at what happened. Some of these guesses get repeated often enough that they are considered as fact.
This has happened since humans could communicate, but social media has exacerbated it in a way previously unseen before. Perhaps the most dramatic recent example in international news has been the widespread violence against Muslims in Sri Lanka. This is a country where, according to The New York Times, conspiracy theories on Facebook have become the main source of news. In an atmosphere like this, the Buddhist majority has decided that Muslims are trying sterilize them. None of this is true. It’s a complete fabrication. But people believe it. On one occasion, The Times reports, a mob beat a man and burned down his family’s restaurant after he allegedly admitted to putting sterilizing powder on a person’s meal.
In reality, he didn’t speak the same language as his customer, and simply agreed to whatever he was saying in effort to placate the angry man. He was beaten and his family’s business was torn to shreds shortly after.
A video was taken of this incident and has been widely used as proof that Muslims are out to get Buddhists. It spread immediately, and this, along with a number of videos have fuelled anti-Muslim sentiment that has turned to violence.
Increasingly, people are turning to status updates as their main source of information.
But these sources are often highly flawed.
Even in cases where people have good intentions. In 2013, at the time of the Boston bombing when it was unclear who the attackers were, people on Reddit decided that they could solve the mystery themselves.
The ‘Redditors’ efforts were an abject failure, the BBC reported. Instead, these amateur detectives falsely identified innocent people. Lives were endangered.
Information travels so fast and far now.
News organizations owe it to the public to provide a reliable voice.
