Social Media: Blurring the boundary between News and Views?

There was a time when news was supposed to be just plain facts stated in a monotonous manner by a well dressed newsreader. Then came a time when people started looking forward to news not just for the facts but for the discussions, debates and arguments that followed. These were the days when internet was penetrating fast and deep; social media meant Orkut and Facebook/Twitter  were infants. So what usually happened was that the discussions used to get carried over to social media/blogs and the internet in general – any popular/talked about news item used to find its way to social media at lightning speed.

Many of you reading this might be thinking why I have used past tense in the last sentence of the paragraph above when what has been described is still very much happening. Well, I will agree partially, but what really is happening today is somewhat different. Earlier social media activity (about news, current affairs) used to lag the news broadcast on other media, now the reverse has started happening. Social Media has acquired such magnanimous proportions in terms of traction that what gets being talked about in Social Media is defining what will become news!

A very recent example of the phenomenon described above is the BBC documentary India’s Daughter on the infamous 2012 Delhi Gang rape and what followed. Once it became known that BBC was going to broadcast a documentary on the said case, there were strong reactions from both sides – those who were in favour of the telecast and those who were not. There were opposing hashtags trying to tweet the other side out on Twitter, similar discussions were turning into infinite threads on Facebook. The Indian Govt’s ban on the telecast had acted as a catalyst and magnified the social media buzz. BBC quickly sensed from the strong sentiment in social media, that telecasting the documentary before schedule will garner never seen before TRPs and mention, and so it did that! The documentary was all over the internet uploaded on Youtube and every other site that hosted videos. The documentary’s contents became public through social media, and once again the news media followed social media – the endless debates over the documentary started. People who barely knew what the debate was about were blabbering pedantic strictures because they had been hashtagged!

One such ugly manifestation of permeation of corrupted knowledge, where some people took others’ views as news emerged when a German professor denied an internship opportunity to an Indian student. The German Professor in a very caustic email reply denied the opportunity to the Indian student reasoning that her staff did not feel safe with Indian males around. She clearly mentioned that this observation of hers was basis the recent rape incidents which had come in the fore. Soon the email was on social media, with Indians (particularly those against the telecast of BBC documentary) coming out vehemently against such racism (apparently the inference drawn out of the professor’s email was that no Indian males could be trusted...or atleast this was what was made out to be the inference). The screenshots of the emails (two of those) from the professor went viral and once again news media followed social media, when this story was broadcast in the primetime news! The German ambassador in India wrote a fitting reply to the professor, she apologized, all this happened in a span of less than 48 hours. So from social media to TV news to closure (if I may call it) happened in real quick time!

Let us reflect a bit; what had perhaps happened was that the professor (like many others) had taken the social media buzz to be too true. With the debate around the documentary being fought everywhere on the social media, the only parts that stuck with professor were perhaps “Indians” & “Rape”. She used some views circulating on the web as facts (maybe I am simplifying things a bit here, but broad idea that one gets is the same). The news media then quickly acted, looked into these views of the professor and the views of scores of angry Indians expressing their disagreement with the professor; thus a prime time news story got created. The conventional media has taken cognizance of the fact that social media is so powerful now that mere discussions have the might to create solid news stories which can be run directly in the prime time slot. The days when social media was a follower are gone! Now it is social media that is creating stories and the news media that is broadcasting them. However, there must be a disclaimer which the news media should be aware of: The “stories” on social media are often “views” which should be freely expressed but can’t always be perceived as news (facts which ought to be 100% true).