Twitter reactions not representative of public opinion

[Dick Whitman]

Whoo hooo!

I've been saying for years that reax stories about SOCIL MEDIA!!!111 are lazy journalism and a low-rent crutch.

Oh, and apparently inaccurate, as well:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/03/04/pew_internet_survey_twitter_is_full_of_haters_and_negative_opinions.html

As much as the media leans on Twitter as an instant public-opinion barometer, the microblogging site's users really aren't representative of the nation at large. ...

[T]he most consistent bias that Pew found was not toward liberals or conservatives. It was a bias against, well, almost everything.

 

[Versatile]

Social media reaction stories are not inaccurate unless they are poorly labeled.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Social media reaction stories are not inaccurate unless they are poorly labeled.

Disagree. I think it is implied that they are at least reasonably representative of public opinion.

 

[Versatile]

We can't assume readers will figure out that people on Twitter are younger and more cynical than the general populace? None of this is breaking news.

 

[Dick Whitman]

We can't assume readers will figure out that people on Twitter are younger and more cynical than the general populace? None of this is breaking news.

No, we can't. People read these stories and they, I would guess, assume that they are representative of public opinion. You're talking about the same general public that believes movie commercials are a good representation of critical response. I don't know how many times I've heard, "Supposedly it's getting great reviews" about a movie that got roundly torched. Why? Because the commercial cherry-picks reviewer quotes. And a lot of people don't get that.

 

[Versatile]

So should we continue to do the stories but put in disclaimers?

 

[Dick Whitman]

So should we continue to do the stories but put in disclaimers?

We should not do the stories.

 

[YGBFKM]

So should we continue to do the stories but put in disclaimers?

We should not do the stories.

 

[Versatile]

But readers like those stories. Readers click and share those stories. Readers like to participate in those stories, then they share them even more if they are chosen to be part of those stories.

And, yes, those stories provide easy secondary pieces for breaking news. Is that so wrong? It would be if we were ignoring the main story, the real reporting. But here's something that can be compiled by an online producer. And most of these stories pop up for inane events, not real news. (I'm including the state of the union and presidential debates in this category because they aren't actually important.) Your readers want Oscars coverage. Why be so uptight that you can't provide them with a slice of social media reaction? Pull a few witty quips and a few decent insights so that your readers don't have to go through thousands of tweets. It's a service.

We have to be about more than reporting the news these days. We have to engage readers and provide service journalism. Otherwise we'll lose them to the places willing to give them what they want.

 

[Dick Whitman]

And most of these stories pop up for inane events, not real news.

http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB10001424052748703703304576299422548353478.html

 

[Versatile]

I said "most." And that's a story discussing the rise of Twitter in the context of a major news event, not using Twitter as a form of sourcing on the news event.

 

[Dick Whitman]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/newtown-shooting-sparks-mass-social-media-discussion-gun/story?id=17998796

 

[Versatile]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/oscars/9892192/Oscars-2013-How-Twitter-reacted-to-host-Seth-MacFarlane.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/super-bowl-twitter-reaction--ravens-and-49ers-players-react-to-the-big-game--051714741.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/23/facebook-down-tweets_n_737268.html#s144420

 

[Norrin Radd]

Kind of snotty to dance on Twitter's supposed grave. Looking at opinions on Twitter is no different than crowd sourcing the old-fashioned way.

Every social media collective has its own little communities, its own rules, its own realities.

This place, for instance, proves this daily.

 

[lantaur]

I think it is more accurate to take a poll of 1,500 people and represent it as a national poll of how over 300 million Americans think. You know, like Pew Research does.

 

[Ace]

Kind of snotty to dance on Twitter's supposed grave. Looking at opinions on Twitter is no different than crowd sourcing the old-fashioned way.

Every social media collective has its own little communities, its own rules, its own realities.

This place, for instance, proves this daily.

People dance on our grave all the time. A little tit for tweet is OK by me.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Kind of snotty to dance on Twitter's supposed grave. Looking at opinions on Twitter is no different than crowd sourcing the old-fashioned way.

Every social media collective has its own little communities, its own rules, its own realities.

This place, for instance, proves this daily.

Twitter's fine. I like Twitter.

Twitter is not an accurate gauge of public opinion.

 

[Versatile]

Neither is quoting people who go to city council meetings.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Neither is quoting people who go to city council meetings.

I hate those stories, too.

 

[Versatile]

Your ideal media organization would write three stories a day.