2b
I like to think of breaking news as a puzzle freshly scattered on the floor. Crowd-sourcing at its best is almost like the four corner pieces jumping out at you- they look solid and can be easily used to further build up the picture or story you are trying to create. On the internet however, crowd-sourcing can get messy to sort through and verify. Journalists inherently have that responsibility to report verified information. That fact alone makes the distinction between a citizen-journalist and a reporter. I think with how instant social media can be crowd-sourcing is just another lead of the story that needs to be followed and pieced together and sorted through before being published, even if its means newsrooms will be behind in the story.
There is an ethical concern with managing a persons information but also a personal concern as to how the public will react to your own action. People may lose their jobs, go through public shame, and can get attacked or harassed if they get doxxed. The one who post said information is in the public eye too. If the person they doxxed had supporters there could be a response that has potential to go limitlessly bad for the doxxer. The question “is this the right thing to do” should be asked. If one were to go through with it they should be prepared as doxxing has such a heavy influence on a person’s life.
I believe we contextualize individual moments into a story by understanding the context on why it was posted. Reaching out to people who post information and asking their side of things and knowing why they posted in the first place can lead to a larger story to compile and combine into one. If I had the luxury of covering all my bases during breaking news I would have multiple eyes searching keywords or hashtags on different social media, but most importantly twitter. Anything that can be verified in person during the event will be posted first. If the story was like the Boston Bombing I would feel hesitant to rely on crowd-sourced information. If I felt that the information is emotional or graphic I would not want to post it without confirmation.
