I came across an interesting piece about Twitter today on CNET about Washington Post reporter Mike Wise. Aparently Mike Wise wanted to demonstrate how unreliable Twitter is as a news source by posting fake information using his real name and that of the newspaper he works for. Long story short: he's sorry now.
I'm reminded of people who continually post about how unreliable the now ubiquitous Wikipedia is. Whenever studied, whenever tested, it proved itself reliable and as worthy of being referenced as other major publications. Somehow the "many eyes" concept still hasn't gotten past some of our society's belief in the constant need for experts.
In response to one such person's comment on the above CNET story in fact, I posted the following:
Twitter delivers reliable news in the same way as paper does. Its a medium, and that is all. Some paper has doodles on it, some paper is used on rolls and deposited in toilets, and some has newsprint all over it. There is nothing special about paper that makes it more newsworthy than any other medium, and nothing nefarious about Twitter that makes it less deserving to be used for the same purpose.
People fail to comprehend sometimes that many mediums can be used for both good and silliness without any conflict. Facebook has silly farm games, and people posting their weekends of binge drinking but also companies who want to share their product information, and groups of individuals organizing events in their communities.
Of course, many people also fail to understand Facebook.
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