Media, the Storm and How Sandy Changed Reporting Forever

Coverage Type: 

[Commentary] The changes in news media around Hurricane Sandy surprised me in a number of ways. In particular: their speed, volume, and news value.

Mainstream media no longer tried to ignore the power of social media; instead, they used the crowd-sourced information to feed (and in some cases mislead) their audiences. On the local news stations, anchors literally held their phones in their hand, scrolling through tweets as they ad-libbed their way through their newscasts. Perhaps the most surprising was the volume -- the sheer volume of video that made its way unfiltered onto the web. So, the question is: Does this replace professional journalism? Far from it. UGC Newsgathering adds sources, point of view, and reach. But it also adds noise, and inaccuracy, and fakes. Tons of fake PhotoShop images. Tons of false reports about water on the floor of the stock exchange, or other rumors amplified by the speed of the social web. So, going forward, we need the power and voice of UGC news, as well as the curatorial tools and fact checking chops of working Journalists to help us filter signal from noise. Welcome to the new world of media, where the volume is massive, and the filters are human. It's a new way to think of news, but it's the way we're going to in the future.


Media, the Storm and How Sandy Changed Reporting Forever