Apr 8
Capitol Fox Uncovers Conflict Between Social Media, News Stations and Misinformation
A rabid fox ran around Capitol Hill this last week, and I had the opportunity to cover the story. While covering it, officials confirmed and constantly gave me updates on the number of foxes, the number of people bitten, and other issues related to the captured fox's wellbeing. As new updates came in, my story changed multiple times throughout the day. However, the most interesting thing to me was how much social media played a role in the story, for the good and the bad.
This is not the first time foxes have been seen near the Capital.
When my director and I first began planning moves to cover the story, we planned for it to be a fun and silly story, with lots of little jokes.
All we knew was that a fox was running around capital grounds nipping at people. There was no clear number, but from social media posts, we knew for sure of two people, Representative Ami Bera from California and Politico reporter, Ximena Bustillo.
Social media and other news stations had reported that the fox went all over capital grounds, including the United States Botanical Gardens. However, when I got to the gardens and talked with the communications director, he told me this information was incorrect, completely made up, and that the news stations got the wrong information!
Even though this was a silly story, I was surprised how this misinformation could have so easily been messed up by social media users and even news stations. As the story progressed, I got updates from DC Health and Capitol Police. However, a lot of the time, I found out the news from social media before the officials had even updated me. This was difficult because when I saw the information on social media, I was not sure if it was correct, so I would have to wait on the officials even, though I had already seen the information. Some news stations just relied on crediting the confirmation of other news stations.
After being on Capitol Hill to shoot b-roll, interview tourists, and shoot a stand-up, I rushed back to the station to write the story and put it together. While researching the topic, we found some pretty funny stuff about the fox issue! The fox running around Capitol Hill had its own Twitter account that gained over four thousand followers in about 2 days!
I obviously included this fun detail in the story.
At this point, Capitol Police confirmed that there were six cases of people being nipped or bitten. After putting the story together oh, we got another update that the fox was a mother. The babies were also captured. Unfortunately, this mother Fox does not have a happy ending. She had to be put down to be checked for rabies.
We once again had to change the story. When we were almost done with this version, we got another update…
The mother Fox did have rabies. Suddenly, our funny story could not be as silly.
The next morning we got word that the baby’s also had to be put down and that there were now 9 confirmed human attacks.
Finally, no more updates from social media or officials. The story was ready to air.
Social media is an awesome tool, however, it is not the most reliable. The people on social media most likely are not confirming with officials if it is correct or incorrect information, like new stations have to.
News is ever-changing, fast, and hard to keep up with. Social media has only escalated this issue. A symbol silly Capitol fox story is the perfect example of how social media influences journalism and can easily lead to fake news. Sometimes as a journalist, we need to remember to slow down and get it right.
