Think Piece Adornato Ch 7
The name of the game is ethical dilemmas. What is fake? What is a rumor? Who in this world do we listen to?
Adornato asked us to “consider common ethical dilemmas” (Pg.147), by doing this we can seek out what other consider right and wrong and how we can make a standard for what is reported. He also asks us to “apply traditional journalism ethics to guide [our] social media activitites” (Pg.147), we should not be posting photos of dead people and we should not be publisizing out opinions. When we report we should look to state factual information that will update and audience. As a member of social media, it isn’t our job to scare or persuade people. Our job is report the facts.
Something that really stuck out to me was when Adornato said we should “add context to our retweets” (Pg.153). Retweeting is a big part of the social media platform called Twitter. Fake news often comes from people retweeting information that isn’t varified.
Retweeting in my opinion is the reason for fake news, the idea that anyboyd could spread information opens up a world where anything could or couldn’t be true. It is up to the consumer to decided wheater information is correct or not. People can varifiy information by doing more reaserch and not spreanding information willy nilly.
In order to add context to your tweet, one can “add a comment to make sure your retweet isn’t interpreted as an endorsment of someone’s opinion or stance” (Pg.153).
Adornato also lists things that aren’t professional to post. These things consist of: Sharing personal opinion, sharing political affiliation, sharing religious beliefs, advocating on behalf of a particular issue, joining social network groups associated with a particular issue, sharing the most intimate details of their personal lives, and sharing internal newsroom communications intended for staff members only. These are practices that when posting to social media, people should avoid.
Overall, Adornato explan’s a checklist of things a member of the social media should have to in order to avoid ethical dilemmas and fake news. One should always stay informed, by staying informed you are updated with credible sources and you’re updated on current and important informaiton. Furthermore, one should share their knowledge. Simply, if you know something that is important and factually important then you should share it. We learn from each other, that how things like oral traditions are passed down. As a member of the social media it is important to find out “what the real deal” is. How can we verify information? We verify it with researching and not retweeting without verified information.
Finally, it is important to research information before posting it. Fake information is spread through inaccurate research and ubiquitous retweeting of information for random and unverified social media users. Research and caring about factual information will change how we absorb information in the future.
