#4 // Information In-corrections

In last week's group presentation about "Responsibilities on Journalists, Citizens, and the Public". Their presentation brought two main questions to my mind as a hopeful future journalist... 

1) What do journalists owe the public? 

And 2) What does the public owe journalism? 

The answer, I believe, it truth. The journalists owe the public truth. And the public owes it to the journalists to seek out that truth. The presenting group mentioned that if there is wrong or incorrect news floating around... then social media can fix it; it can “correct the news,” one class member said. Excuse me if I understood that wrong... but what? If anything at all happens... it's the opposite. Those who search for truth... find truth. Those who lazily look on Facebook and see their filter-bubbled and demassified news feed... find this feared falsified fiction. This, I believe is one of the many fallacies of social media.

Fallacy: a mistaken belief, 

especially one based on unsound argument,

 or a failure in reasoning that renders an argument invalid.

The web-based company, Convince & Convert, is dedicated to the transition to social media. They call themselves the "social & content accelerators." They post tips, tricks, and tales of social media networking (www.convinceandconvert.com). In one of their latest articles, The 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media, they discussed the factual basis of social media. Noting that it is most unintentional news libel, what people put on Facebook is based on the rumor.

The following article shows the oxymoronic nature of Facebook fallacies:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/whos-faking-it-pentagon-cyber-warriors-planting-false-information-on-facebook/5320550

In November of 2012, Los Angeles Times published a piece entitled, “Cyber Corps program trains spies in the digital age.” And then explains how big-wig companies are planting false information on social media through illegal tracking, sorting, and hacking programs. Well, obviously… shortly after this article was published, hundreds on Facebook were claiming to have found these trash-seeking blogs, fabricated Facebook pages, and virus filled twitter feeds. Social Networking users were up in arms… furious at the government (because was does the government have to do with this?), they double-checked their privacy settings and scanned their feed for more information on these “Cyber Implanters”… well… come to find out… none of these “false pages” existed. The rumors claiming that Facebook was full of false-truths… were false. If that doesn't show the inaccuracy of social media… I don’t quite know what does.

Just do us all a favor... and don't listen to what your news feed tells you.

p.s. I don't mean to undermine the groups presentation - because it ruled! 

But I'm a pot-stirrer by nature... Forgive me///