Zero-Based News
Part Twelve
One of the ways “news” becomes “news” for a specific media organization is because someone else has determined it is “news.”
Sometimes, for example, Media Organization X might quote Media Organization Y as stating that “news” is “news.” Both media organizations would have some level of respect for each other and knowledge that each verifies information prior to reporting “news.”
In recent years, though, that “someone else” has come to include social media.
Not just the companies that own social media platforms – most of which do not verify the veracity of posts on their social media platforms – but also the individuals who decide to post information on those social media platforms.
In general, the information might be actual, factual, and truthful information that has been verified by the person posting the information or the information might be gossip based on someone’s opinion.
The information may have been verified or not verified independently.
But today, regardless of verification for veracity, the information might be considered “news.”
In the past, prior to the use of social media platforms, much of the information found on social media would be known only to a select group of people – the person with the initial information, that person’s immediate family and/or friends that they talk with, the people that their immediate family and/or friends talk with, and so on.
The people who learned about specific information from that first person could make a judgment about the validity of the specific information based on their knowledge of the person reporting that information.
Overall, the circle of people receiving the specific information would be limited.
Today, anyone – literally, anyone – can post information on social media platforms.
Even non-humans – think automated bots – can post information on social media platforms.
With few types of limitations – libelous statements, child porn, and similar types of content – almost any type of information can be posted on social media platforms.
Through those social media platforms, the circle of people receiving information can be very limited, modest, or substantial.
The people receiving that information through social media platforms may – or may not – have any way of knowing if the person posting the information is providing information that is actual, factual, and truthful – independently verified – or if the person posting the information is instead posting gossip based on their opinions.
A number of media organizations – newspapers, broadcasters, streamers, and others – now take information they find on social media platforms and run with that information as “news.”
Prior to reporting the information as “news” – “news” based on information posted on social media platforms – a specific media organization may verify that the “news” quoted is actual, factual, and truthful information that has been verified independently by that specific media organization.
Or the specific media organization may simply quote the information as “news” – without independently verifying if the information is actual, factual, and truthful or if the information is instead gossip based on the opinions of the individual who posted the information.
The dilemma for the consumers of news is that few differentiate between the two approaches to what is “news.”
In the past, most legitimate media organizations would not report information as “news” that they themselves did not independently verify.
As the years went by, many legitimate media organizations began reporting information as “news” by quoting other legitimate media organizations and stating that they themselves have not verified the information.
In more recent years, a number of legitimate media organizations began reporting information as “news” by quoting posts found on social media platforms – without independently verifying the information.
The latter approaches diminish the credibility of media organizations that employ those techniques.
The next news column in this series will focus on how drama influences what news is reported.
Peirspictiochtai Ar A Saol – Gaelic – Irish – for “Perspectives On Life” is a column focused on aspects of accountability and responsibility as well as ways people look at life.
Contact Richard McDonough at
© 2025 Richard McDonough
