How do I know what I know? Well…how do any of us know what we know? Are we born with an innate ability to understand the world around us? Or do we simply have the ability to ‘soak’ up the knowledge around us? I personally believe that as we with everything in life we need to be taught what we know. This being said, I would say that I know what I know because I have learned how to put technology and social media to use. Through such sites as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. I learn different things on a daily basis.
Today for example, I learned about an altercation in San Antonio, TX. Two men (one of them an employee) started an altercation at a Sonic drive-thru, apparently over a woman (according to news 4). One man pulled out a box knife and cut the other man across the abdomen (according to KENS 5 news). When the police arrived the suspect left the scene only to be pursued by said police, while the other man was taken to the hospital (according to FOX 29). As you can see each site contained different information and yet the same information. So how do I know that this story is true? “Truth is a statement of what is most probable in proportion to the evidence at the time,” (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 32).
We cannot say for certain what the exact truth of something is unless we were there and involved in the entire scenario at hand. Do I believe this story to be true? Yes, not only because I see it on my Facebook page, but also because I took the time to look up more information on the situation and vet the sources that contained said information. I could say that social media, or media in general, is never reliable and state plenty of instance, such as the Sandy Hook coverage, or the Boston Marathon coverage, or plenty of false deaths of celebrities, but that would be wrong.
Social media may be concerned with being the first to get the news out and some may say they are trigger happy, but they also bring us news on a steadfast plane. We are constantly connected through some type of ICT (information and communication technology). Due to this, we have instant access at our fingertips and in a moment’s notice. This by no means makes social media more reliable, but it also does not mean that they are not. “For there are no media rules. There is no law that requires labeling. The First Amendment protects the right of all of us to write or broadcast freely,” (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 35). Therefore, all in all everyone has their right to say or print what they want. Does this make it true? No, but it also does not make it false. The truth is up to the consumer to find and with the vast majority of information overload available to us, how could we not.
FOXSSan Antonio. Man arrested for stabbing at Northwest Sonic. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from: http://www.foxsanantonio.com
KENS5. Worker stabbed during altercation at northwest-side Sonic. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from: http://www.kens5.com
Kovach, B. and Rosenstiel, T. (2010). Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA.
News4 San Antonio. Stabbing at Sonic leaves man in jail. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from:http://news4sanantonio.com
Thanks Teresa
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