Monday, April 21, 2014

British paper's "expose" illustrates power struggle between social media and traditional newspapers

Britain's Guardian reports (excerpt):
"Although newspapers are still able to set the news agenda, they now have to come to terms with the fact that people have platforms that enable them to not only answer back but also switch the agenda.
"So it was on Sunday when the Mail on Sunday was confronted by widespread anger across social media, notably Twitter, over its two-page article about food banks. The paper's "special investigation", headlined "No ID, no checks … and vouchers for sob stories: the truth behind those shock food bank claims", suggested that claims about the scale of Britain's welfare problems had been exaggerated. . . .
"Reaction against the MoS's anti-food bank message was swift. The Twittersphere hummed with anger as people argued that the article discredited the mission of food banks to help the poor. One tweet said: 'No, no Daily Mail [sic]. The scandal isn't that food bank volunteers didn't check your cretins' ID. The scandal is that food banks exist at all.'"
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