I recently read a group of high profile journalists (mainstream media) stating that "Twitter is where we get the news from"...
Twitter has become a sort of real-time news agency. If you follow the correct profiles in your niche/sector not even Reuters can beat the speed of 95% of the events. If there's a newsworthy event, chances are it's first on twitter than in any other media outlet.
Wow. This is unbelievably scary.
Imho news should be curated & not first to the wires. News should involve individual fact checking and less web of trust.
I understand how we consumers might want to listen to a journalist's feed, but journalists using it as a source too? It's nothing but a self referential feedback loop otherwise!
One word describes the problem: covfefe
https://twitter.com/freakonometrics/status/10205573001537044...
Is that just for entertainment or did you use that information in some way?
It's similar to papers or tv stations crowing how they broke a story. So what? Do I really need (or do most people) to know that there is a mass tragedy (only one example) the minute it happens? It can't wait? Not everything that happens is '911' grade information.
"just" is just your opinion
> Do I really need (or do most people) to know
I do.
Reading the entire sentence makes it clear that "just" refers to whether or not they "use that information in some way", and that is not an opinion.
> I do.
You cut off "the minute it happens". It's not about whether you learn it, but how rapidly.
Breaking a story matters if no one else was looking, but yeah not of everyone was racing.
How is that a good thing? Without proper fact-checking it's just rumors. And there are a lot of instances of fake news spreading on Twitter before full information is available.