Besame, mi amor.
You Tweeple ought to be ashamed of yourself. How dare you try to step in and disseminate information about swine flu with your little hashtags. Don’t you know this is a job for Mainstream Media?
That’s what it sounded like Tuesday morning when I came across this story on the CNN Web site. The headline — “Swine flu creates controversy on Twitter” – is completely misleading. The swine flu didn’t create the controversy on Twitter. Print, and other old media outlets seem to be doing more to foster this “controversy.”
Brennon Slattery of PCWorld was very critical of Twitter in the CNN piece and had his own tirade against the service yesterday. He wrote, “mass hysteria has swept across the country, and Twitter is adding fuel to the fire.” Does he forget how Mainstream Media did that with the first swine flu outbreak 30 years ago? Or with SARS or monkey pox or the invasion by Mars a la “War of the Worlds?” Hell, we’re lucky we’re still alive.
It’s real easy for legacy media to forget their role in spreading fear and panic when they can now blame new media and its ability to transmit information at speeds the “legacies” never imagined.
Yes there are cranks and crackpots on Twitter whose only goal is to generate more followers. But aren’t TV stations striving for viewers while magazines and newspapers scramble for readers? And how do they do that when everyone is delivering the same content? They tease, they titillate and they scare the hell out of you.
So put your stones back in your pockets, polish up your glass houses and get back to reporting facts in a responsible manner. And if you want to keep up with the latest swine flu news, you can follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Twitter. Ironic, no?
(Photo by Alfredo Estrella, Getty Images)
