SocialMediaBust Library

Sad State: Media Reporting About Social Media: If you know enough about social media, and you read with a critical eye, you'll be both saddened and shocked at the shallow and misleading reporting about social media subjects, not only in online media outlets, but also in print, and including major "used to be reliable" sources like the New York Times, and CNN. In fact, when you stop skimming and start reading, you'll find that the majority of reporting is incomplete, lacking in any analysis or critical thinking, and ultimately vastly misleading to readers. Oddly enough, it's this shoddy journalism and lack of critical thinking that has, in part, fueled the social media craze and its rapid growth, as social media fanatics repeat any positive information social media that appears...well, anywhere.

Why does this take place? Perhaps nobody really knows, at this point. Perhaps it's a shift to superficial thinking in our cultures. Or that investigative, thoughtful writing has been replaced by sound bytes that simply repeat what is "accepted" as true. It is disturbing for two reasons. First, its impossible to find reliable sources for information about social media on which to make decisions, and second, it's impossible for most business people to distinguish between the "information" coming from hacks, and the information that comes from serious, analytical writers who are interested in truth rather than advocating for social media.

Recommended: Giving The Business to Social Media Research Find out why most of the social media research is at best, misleading, and at worst, results in poor business decisions. Understanding how poor the research is, and how its almost always reported wrongly will help you THINK more effectively about what you read.

Tip: NEVER accept information about social media effectiveness at face value. Always ask relevant questions: Where did this information come from? Do the conclusions reflect the data included? Is the title of the article accurately reflecting the content? It's rare to see media err on the conservative side. Media almost always gets it wrong by making positive claims about social media.