Has real time overtaken traditional news? Not for me.

So, today’s been an interesting news day and once again real time social media has shown its strengths and weaknesses.  Alongside the long running #IranElections, earlier today it was declared that Farrah Fawcett had died after her fight with cancer.  I saw this and thought it was a sad day, but carried on, as did the rest of my twitterstream.

This evening however the early reports that Michael Jackson had been rushed to hospital started being tweeted.  This was met by some tweets by people who were concerned.  Then all of a sudden it changed, Michael Jackson is dead – TMZ reported, and it went around the twitterverse faster than almost any other story I’ve seen.

I’m all for updates and news coming through as quickly as possible – that’s the whole point of real time.  But I did get very concerned that a lot of tweets were going out saying that it had been confirmed when only one source had mentioned it.  So I asked for some restraint while waiting for confirmation.

I went on to explain my reasoning but the rumours kept on flying, Michael Jackson had been taken into hospital after a heart attack, after taking an overdose, he was dead, he was in a coma, the tweets just kept on flying.  It was confusing so I reverted to the only source of news that I truly trust.  The BBC were able to confirm that Michael Jackson had been taken into hospital, but not his death/coma or any other state.  I received texts from my step-daughter and a friend and was as honest as I could be and said that the news wasn’t confirmed.

To be honest, even though I watched the news unfold on twitter, none of my followers were eyewitnesses or in the middle of the situation, so my only choice was to turn back to traditional journalism for a balanced, considered and investigated story.

While much of the twitterverse were posting their condolences (and jokes) I sat watching and waiting for the confirmation.  I knew that it was probably true, but I’m cautious about confirming information without verifiable proof.  Then it came through, I was able to contact those people who had asked me and tell them it was true.  The BBC had confirmed it and that was enough for me.  In fact, it reminded me about Bill Thompson’s article “Whose Service” about the licence fee, and the debate that’s going on at the moment.  I’m not sure on the debate but I do know one thing… I hope that any changes made to the licence fee won’t affect it’s (relative) impartiality and quality.

While twitter has shown its strength throughout the #IranElection, and the #bbcqt & #Eurovision coverage is fun I think I’ll still be relying on the traditional media for a while yet.