Social Media – How do we use it?

In my previous post, I ended off with a TED talk from Clay Shirky. Clay asks, “How can we make the best use of this technology?” at the end of his talk. It’s a good question, and one that needs to be reviewed a bit more.

Right now, there’s a lot of noise out there. One phenomenon I noticed during the last few days was just how gullible people can be when they heard that Jeff Goldblum died during the whole Michael Jackson frenzy. It’s due to this new technology that I often ask people for their sources when I hear something that could be too good to be true. There aren’t any rules that civilian reporters (aka bloggers) have to adhere to, so they could technically make up a rumor of their choosing.

The most recent example of blog or website that published a false story to draw traffic was this one: Woman Dies After Using Jackhammer as Dildo. The problem with creating fake stories like this, and making up Jeff Goldblum’s death (man, people must hate him to make up that rumor!) is that it creates a distrust between readers and bloggers. Before, when almost all written news articles were published by professionals, we didn’t have to question the validity of the information presented to us. Now, we have to deal with personal bias, misleading facts, bad English, grammar and spelling, personal vendettas, and outright slander.

So how do we sort through all this noise? How do we find credible sources in this new land of technology that doesn’t have a regulatory body? Personally, I’ve created a small list of things I look for when looking for credible sources of information. This list is by no means official, so please take it with a grain of salt!

• Good English & Grammar
  It all boils down to the ability to communicate a message, no matter what that message is. If the blogger’s English is really bad, or if their grammar and spelling are terrible, I’ll be less likely to read what they have to say. The only exception to this rule is when I know for a fact that English isn’t the blogger’s native language.
• Relevant Information
  There are a lot of people who love to use keyword rich titles in their blog posts to generate traffic or to up their google PageRank and then not talk about anything I want to read about. It’s kind of like picking up a tabloid. Their headlines promise huge news about Jon & Kate’s divorce, but the actual article focuses on random things that don’t pertain to the headline at all.
• CORRECT Information, with sources provided
  Wikipedia is an amazing resource for all sorts of information ranging from highly complex medical articles to internet memes like lolcats, but when the Fake Wikipedia Professor struck, it lost credibility. After this incident, however, Wikipedia tightened its belt on ficticious references. Now, whenever I hear something that’s too good to be true, I’ll usually ask for the source fo the information and judge it for myself.
• Reputation
  If it’s a local blogger, it’s easy to check out their reputation. Some of the most reputable bloggers in the lower mainland are Miss 604, Rebecca Bollwitt (who holds amazing contests and provides excellent content), Raul Pacheco, Michael Kwan, and a whole host of others. However, if they’re not local bloggers, it’s easy enough to check in on the industry they’re blogging about to see if they’re genuine in what they post and if they care to maintain a good reputation with their audience

Until there are solid rules for what makes a blogger a blogger, those rules I’ve set for myself will have to suffice.