Word of mouse

I'm grateful to a good friend for sharing an article on social media that appeared in the Los Angeles Times last week. Its author illustrates the perceived preference of some media outlets to portray the desperate acts of typhoon victims as 'looting'. Yesterday, in a short programme on the BBC called Newswatch (content not available online outside the UK), members of the public also questioned the need for numerous TV anchormen to present the news from the scene of the disaster; thus risking turning a catastrophe into a circus. To its credit, the BBC responded with a justification that several reporters were needed to report developments 24 hours a day. Reluctantly or otherwise, we have all now, collectively, manufactured a need for rolling news. We also learned that BBC staff take their own supplies of food and water, thus not detracting from the relief effort in any way.

But in this culture of constant news updates and the 'newsworthy' narrative created to relay them to us, the simple act of sharing an alternative perspective on social media – word of mouse, if you will – is becoming increasingly important. The L.A. Times article, for example, shows a clear need for us to develop a more critical eye. With so much news content now available, we need to fine-tune our own filters to discern the true facts of the information presented to us.