{"id":12872,"date":"2013-11-12T10:48:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T15:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=12872"},"modified":"2013-11-12T10:48:25","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T15:48:25","slug":"facebook-users-beware-and-sometimes-be-silent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/11\/12\/facebook-users-beware-and-sometimes-be-silent\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook users beware (and sometimes, be silent)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Social<\/a>

Social Media Dynamics. Graphic: Mark Smiciklas<\/a>, Creative Commons, some rights reserved<\/p><\/div>\n

In the world of media, there is an astonishing, new(ish) revolution underway that moves us as a society away from the top-down version of mass communication that has defined our society since the advent of the printing press.<\/p>\n

As recently as a decade ago, Americans mostly listened or watched or read their media.\u00a0 They were consumers.\u00a0 They were the audience.<\/p>\n

But these days, and this is a good thing, we’re all participating in a form of mass media in ways that no one yet fully understands.<\/p>\n

From Facebook to blogs to LinkedIn to that email chain you have with old college friends, we’re all talking at least as much as we listen.<\/p>\n

I say this is a good thing because in the old days people like me (and people a lot, lot more influential and widely read than me) held most of the cards.<\/p>\n

Media types controlled the topic of discussion and the tone of dialogue.\u00a0 There was a lot of laziness, and some astonishing abuses of power.<\/p>\n

There’s a reason that journalists are hated almost as much as trial lawyers and members of congress.<\/p>\n

These days, just about anybody can launch an idea into at least their small, local social networks that can exercise wide influence, shaping how people think about everything from a local village council race to the produce at their farmer’s market.<\/p>\n

The horizontality of media also allows you (and me) to talk back to big media.<\/p>\n

When someone writes an article on the New York Times or NCPR website, I can join in the debate, offering my thoughts, and my critique of the reporter’s work.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen numerous cases where this kind of social-network-fact-checked-crowd-sourcing has made journalists better, more accountable, and more understanding about the impact of their work.<\/p>\n

But I think a lot of new mass media users are also learning first hand why this business isn’t easy to get right.\u00a0 When you start talking to a lot of people, you gain power.\u00a0 A whisper can become a howl.\u00a0 A bit of gossip can become a life-changing event.<\/p>\n

With that power comes responsibility.\u00a0 And the last couple of months, I’ve had the sense that most users don’t really get that, at least not yet.<\/p>\n

On my own social media networks, I’ve seen people accusing one-another — by name, and sometimes with photographs attached — of being animal abusers, meth heads, professionally unethical, bad parents, and alcoholics.<\/p>\n

In most cases, there was very little effort to do the kinds of things that most media professionals would consider an absolute must.\u00a0 Like, checking your facts.\u00a0 Like, getting both sides of the story.\u00a0 Like, attempting to remove your own bias from the discussion.<\/p>\n

Taken to extremes, this kind of social-media-gone-wrong can lead to painful places.\u00a0 Cyber-bullying has been over-hyped lately, but it’s a real phenomenon.<\/p>\n

A lot of professional media sites, including the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Popular Science, have begun sharply limiting feedback and discussion because so much of it was uncivil and factually wrong.\u00a0 So much so that it skewed people’s understandings of reality.<\/p>\n

And a lot of the on-line discourse that’s out there — on blogs, Facebook, and other networks — is just plain vicious.\u00a0 Especially when it comes to political discussion, a lot of the horizontal debate is wretched.<\/p>\n

I’ve complained before about the conspiracy theories and end-times screeds that circulate in my own media community, most of them debunked long-ago, yet reposted by folks who can’t be bothered to think a bit before adding more noise to the echo chamber.<\/p>\n

So at risk of sounding like an old-school media guy who just wants to monopolize the conversation, here’s my suggestion:\u00a0 Keep it to yourself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Before you post to a media network, pretend for just a moment that you’re about to speak on a TV show, or be interviewed for the newspaper.<\/p>\n

Imagine that the words you’re about to add to the dialogue are ones that everyone will hear.\u00a0 They are words that may just change people’s lives, affect their businesses, influence their standing in church, in school, in the wider community.<\/p>\n

Are you sure those words are true?\u00a0 Are you sure they’re helpful in some way?\u00a0 And do you feel comfortable with their potential impact?<\/p>\n

If not, then do what I do as an experienced old-media guy.\u00a0 Rather than go wide with your gossip or your blather or your half-baked muddled opinion, chatter to your spouse.\u00a0 Or your mom.<\/p>\n

Or write in your diary.\u00a0 Or mutter to yourself while chopping wood.\u00a0 Now that you’re a broadcaster, you have the power to speak, but also the obligation to sometimes hold your tongue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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