We've all heard about the recent Boston Marathon bombings. Terrible and sad story. But which story? The 8 year old who was running in memory of the Sandy Hook elementary kids? The man who was waiting at the finish line to propose to his girlfriend, who was running? The inability to contact family members because all cell phone services were shut down? These are all examples of stories that went viral in the hours immediately following the incident.
Turns out, each of these stories are false. The 8 year old boy was a bystander in the incident, he was not a runner in the marathon. The man waiting to "propose" to his girlfriend was a story brought about by a picture of a man holding a stranger (woman) in his arms after the bombing. Cell phone service was not cut off, in fact, AT&T went as far as to expand all wi-fi networks and open them up for use to free up tower usage.
Today, the day after, news networks are frantically trying to gather all of the correct information to offset all of the misinformation reported the day before immediately after the incident. I watch the news and keep up with it, but man oh man was I a confused news consumer today! I think social, in some way, causes media outlets to stray from reporting truthful information and causes them to just start drilling through our minds the first thing they hear, whether it is accurate or not. People can claim to be "witnesses," and maybe in some behind-the-scenes way, the media outlets verify this, but why are so many things consistently being reported that are not accurate? Think back to 9/11. Although I was only 11, I don't really recall any media outlets jumping the gun about things and just reporting any news; everything was verified first because it had to be. In a sense, this truthfulness and accuracy in news reporting is gone from today's society. Sad to say that so many false stories get put out into circulation these days.
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