The role of verification of sources in reporting news is "more important than ever" in the era of social media, a conference in Dublin has heard.
People working in social media, journalism, marketing and public relations are gathered at the two-day "Exploding Media – Mash Conference 2011" at the Croke Park conference centre.
Burt Herman, chief executive of Storify.com, a platform to allow people create stories online, said that in the era of social media, “everybody is a reporter”.
But Mr Herman, formerly a journalist for the Associated Press, said this did not mean verification of stories was now less relevant. Citing the example of a tweet sent last week following the killing of Osama bin Laden, he said there was “definitely a verification role that needs to happen”.
Keith Urbahn, chief of staff for former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, triggered a barrage of tweets after he posted that he had been told by a “reputable person” that Osama bin Laden had been killed. As is becoming increasingly common, a major news story was broken on the micro-blogging site.
Mr Herman, who reported on the wars in Aghanistan and Iraq, said that it was not possible for news agencies to have a reporter “on the ground” for every event that might be happening around the world. But he said social media made it possible for everyone to contribute.
He noted that "serious" newspapers such as the Washington Post were now reporting things said on Twitter in a sign of where things were heading.
Edouard Lambelet, chief executive of Paper.li, which allows people to "curate" their own personalised newspaper online, also spoke at the event this morning.
Mr Lambelet said that while not everyone was a content creator, “certainly a lot of us are using our skills to edit and curate”. He said content should be easily searchable in order for others to find it online.
Mark Rock, founder and chief executive of Audioboo, which allows people post their own short audio clips or podcasts online, also spoke at this morning's session.
Participants took part in a number of workshops yesterday, including a session entitled "The Death of the Press Release" with documentary maker Christian Payne.
In a session on Wikileaks today, Irish Times assistant editor Fintan O'Toole said the whole effectiveness of the phenomenon depended on journalism and on "old fashioned newspapers".
He said the website, in and of itself, could not have done the basic job that was crucial to the information, and that was curation. Newspapers had done this job and it was "front pages" that still mattered.
O'Toole said the "media landscape" would still be understood through "very old methodologies in terms of journalism", including good analysis and narrative. He said human beings were "very much attracted to what was new" and to "exaggerate the novelty in everything".
But he said the definition of professionalism in journalism needed to be re-examined. The one word that distinguished professionalism from amateurism was "accountability", he said.
Also taking part in the panel discussion were journalist Sarah McInerney and Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, which was established to support independent journalism.
Mr Smith provided sanctuary to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at his own home in Britain when Mr Assange was fighting extradition to Sweden late last year.
Mr Smith said it suited the traditional newspapers to portray Mr Assange as "a Bond villain" because they were under threat from the work he was doing with Wikileaks.
The Irish Times is a media partner for the event.