Mike Helenthal column: Facebook gives us what we want; the problem is what we want
I don't know what otherworldly magic people expect from Mark Zuckerberg, the most loved and hated man in the world.
Zuckerberg is the creator of Facebook, the digital equivalent of a blank and very spray-paintable wall.
It was made to display human graffiti, yet everyone continues to be aghast that people use it more to scrawl things that offend others than to share photos of cute kittens. (See Kilroy).
I don't use Facebook much because A) I was raised to be discreet, with the knowledge that some things are better left private and nobody's interested in seeing photos of what I had for breakfast, and B) I am offended by images of cute kittens.
But blaming Zuckerberg for all of that, or expecting his company to preemptively delete the billions of vapid thoughts spewed out over Facebook every minute, is like blaming Alexander Graham Bell for bomb threats.
Facebook is no news source or other information gatekeeper. It is a live reflection of humanity. It does not vet, it does not contextualize, it merely aggregates and compartmentalizes the reality its users offer. It is inclusive and divisive at once.
And the collective reflection I'm seeing isn't pretty. I see a selfish, boorish, morbidly obese person who has convinced himself he's getting too thin and must consume more. This person has a visceral hatred for the other “thin” people in the room, seeing them as unequal and unworthy and potentially as food.
That's why in life and in news gathering, I won't use Facebook as a primary source, even if the information appears on what might be considered a reliable or legitimate home page. I don't see it as a source, but a phone book that I could use to call for actual information.
When I want to contact my family and friends, I text, email, call or visit them directly. My storyline remains static, at least in the online sense, which means I don't exist on planet Earth in this day and age. Not sure who to thank for that.
From a news-gathering standpoint, I can't tell you how maddening it is to have unverifiable information that sounds plausible, but that I can't back up with data, and therefore can't report. I've been accused from time to time of withholding information for whatever nefarious purposes, when I'm actually just trying to verify what everybody already “knows.” It's become exponentially maddening to experience this phenomenon in the age of social media.
Sure, I'd like to be first and accurate. But most of all I'd like to be accurate, and by waiting for proof or confirmation, or making an extra call to find a nugget of helpful information, I feel like I at least tried to serve the public interest and satisfy my oath to truth. Gannett, the Star Courier's parent company, supports this approach.
It's why we've moved away from cattle-call and into issue-oriented reporting, as evidenced through more coverage of Kewanee crime and justice issues, and a renewed focus on courthouse reporting of violent crimes and their impact on victims. I'm sorry if you miss the police reports, but it's not really news that Kewanee people are either being ticketed for speeding or arrested for smoking meth.
As journalists, we do fall short and make mistakes, but it's not from taking reporting shortcuts. More often than not, our mistakes are made in the writing or editing process – because we're in a hurry to get the news we have out to readers.
Unlike the discourse you see on Facebook, we'll be the first to admit when we get it wrong.
This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Helenthal: Facebook gives us what we want; the problem is what we want
