2-3 Blog: Social Media and Truth

We continue to dive into social media and how valid and accurate the information we acquire from it is. This week's prompts for this blog post:
How do you know what you know? Name one new thing you learned using a social media site today and explain why you believe it is true. What source did you use to acquire this information? At times, are social media sites reliable for obtaining credible information?

One unfortunate thing I learned from social media today was that a missing Arcadia Firefighter was found dead. I saw a few tweets about the story and then went to a link via Twitter to the Pasadena Star News with a story about it. I usually trust the sources I follow on social media because most of them are legitimate news stations that I trust. This particular story also attributes information to a sheriff's official, "The body of missing Arcadia firefighter Mike Herdman was found Friday by rescuers in the Sespe Wilderness, Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Dan Aguilar said." Attribution of sources make it obviously much easier for me to trust a story and its sources.

#BREAKING — Missing Arcadia firefighter's body found, authorities say. Story developing here: http://t.co/31BWLFr77d
— SGV Tribune (@SGVTribune) June 27, 2014

I believe most of the times social media sites are credible sources of information, at least the ones I follow. Again, I tend to follow mostly well-known media outlets and organizations that I trust. I also follow reporters and journalist that I've worked with or am friends with. Social media is full of legitimate news organizations, and if I do follow a "blogger" or an individual, I always get a second source, at least, to confirm any information I'm interested in or doing research on.

1-5 Blog: Influence of the Media

I use several forms of new media on a daily basis, most of which are social media. I use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram everyday both personally and professionally. I also have a LinkedIn account that I browse once every few days. In addition to those sites, I also created my own website, www.ryanforan.info (needs to be updated) several years ago as a resume website. I thoroughly enjoy social media and appreciate its power and impact.

Social media has definitely changed my perspective on events. I was first introduced to Twitter when I was a news reporter about eight or nine years ago. The immediacy of being able to not only gather news, but to disseminate it, was remarkable and profound. Since then, my experience and use of social media has grown significantly. As a news reporter it was a requirement as a part of my job. I also started two different social media campaigns for schools districts, I have, and do work for. The results have been significant with the amount of people we are able to reach and engage with. My current district is thrilled with my social media outreach campaign and what we’ve been able to accomplish in the ten months since I started here. I also use social media to stay in touch with family and friends, and as a news junky, to get the latest breaking news and trending topics.

My personal and professional experience with social media has been very positive. There have been many people hesitant when I suggest social media as an additional form of communication for a school district, but once they see the results, “how did we live without this before” is often heard. Do negative things and interactions occur via social media? Of course, but the positive impacts greatly outweigh the negative. At least in my experience thus far. I’m excited to dive deeper into social and digital media in this course.