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Dichen Yin
English Composition 3
11/24/2013

land of the free, home of the brave America is founded on the basis of freedom for a
ll. As a result, freedom and independence are probably two of the most important creeds all Amer
icans believe in. Through out the history, we have spent a lot of energy on eliminating the tiniest
threat to our freedom. We as a country has sent a clear message that we will pay any price to guar
d our freedom. But within the country, people are fighting for greater individual power and freed
om in terms of getting information. While traditional news networks are still the most reliable so
urces of news, people are starting to appreciate social medias because as Jenkins puts it, freedo
m is fostered when the means of communication are dispersed, decentralized, and easily availabl
e, as are printing presses or microcomputers. Central control is more likely when the means of co
mmunication are concentrated, monopolized, and scarce, as are great networks(461). Social med
ias, where everyone is allowed to post anything he/she wants to share, are a new generation of so
urces of instant information that, when used along side of traditional news networks, create conv
ergence culture. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social medias, unlike traditional news netw
orks where people receive news passively, depends heavily on consumers active participation
(457). The fact that consumers play such a big role in social medias increases the risk of providin
g false information because not everyone is as well informed and well trained as the producers w
orking at a traditional news network where information has to be confirmed before being aired. B
ut at the same time, this exact same characteristics of social medias empowers them with the spe

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ed of delivering information that traditional networks dont have. Such complementary nature of
social medias and traditional news networks makes the convergence culture an immensely compl
icated, interrelated and fascinating one. As Henry Jenkins so eloquently put it, we are entering a
n era of prolonged transition and transformation in the way media operate(468). Although social
medias offer unique and active ways of accessing news, traditional new networks still hold their r
eputation and their ability to deliver reliable important information, creating a convergence cultur
e where both old and new medias try to satisfy the needs of the new generation of consumers.
The news coverage of Boston Marathon bombing and MIT shooting clearly demonstrates
how social medias and traditional news networks both have their merits.
Because of the instantaneous nature of new medias, the first people to know about the bo
mbing were those using Twitter and Facebook. On April 15th 2013, two pressured cooker bombs
were detonated at around 2:48pm(Levs). Because the marathon itself was an important tradition i
n Boston, there were a lot journalists and reporters at the scene, some of whom were actually part
icipating in the marathon. Even so, it was impossible to organize a live report in such short perio
d of time. Merely 2 mins later, before any live cover was arranged, a man who goes by
@DeLoBarstool on social networking website Twitter sented the first tweet about the explosion
Uhh explosions in Boston(Rogers). When the actual reporters cant put up a news cover in ti
me, ordinary people take their roles and spread the news through social media. As Steven Johnso
n describes in his article, using social media to spread news is to work in a zone where there are
no experts or where the users themselves are the experts(470). The experts, in this case were the
reporters. Even though a lot of news networks are capable of preparing a live cover in a short per
iod of time, nothing beats a tweet that can be sent to the world within few clicks. The man, owni

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ng a smartphone and a twitter account, became the expert and delivered the news to people aroun
d the world.
The advantage of social media becomes even more apparent a few days later when the su
spects of Boston bombing shoot a MIT police and carjacked a SUV. The Boston police started a
huge manhunt which was covered live on almost every big news network. However, when the s
hots were first being reported, no big news networks were there. According to an article posted o
n PolicyMic.com, Network news did not arrive on scene until nearly an hour after Twitter had
broken the story(Bleiberg). Whenever someone hears a gun shot or anything suspicious, he/she
can immediately post it on Twitter and Facebook. Big networks, however, have to go through a s
eries of process to verify the report before actually including it in the news. Such time delay usua
lly ranges from 10 to 20 mins which in cases like this one, can make all the difference. One of m
y friends even posted on Facebook saying that CNN [is] utterly unreliable and behind real time.
Listen to scanner if you in any way can. TV news "live updates" are 20 minutes old. I made a
Twitter to get better news.(my facebook?). This quote is particularly interesting to me because
my friend actively chose her source of information. She is no longer required to sit in front of TV
and listen to whatever CNN or NBC feeds her. She can actively go online and search for the info
rmation she wants. She can choose to use new media or the old media. She is able to learn how t
o use these different media technologies to bring the flow of media more fully under [her] contro
l and to interact with other consumers(467). This kind of freedom of choosing information is ex
actly what Henry Jenkins calls a convergence culture.
Because of the amazing features of social media, even traditional networks have started u
sing medias such as Twitter to deliver information in the most timely manner. CNN, Boston Glob

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e and Boston Police Department are just a few examples of traditional institutions adapting new t
echnologies to deliver news. Just as Jenkins states in his article, Media companies are learning h
ow to accelerate the flow of media content across delivery channels to expand revenue opportuni
ties, broaden markets, and reinforce viewer commitments(467). A growing number of audiences
are using social medias to gather information. A quarter of Americans got information about the
devastating explosions and the hunt for the bombers on social networking sites such as Facebook
and Twitter, according to a report out Tuesday from the Pew Research Center(Petrecca). Social
medias have very successfully established themselves as the quickest news delivery systems.
However, without a strict regulation system for online networks, the information can be
misleading and readers have to be able to filter out the inaccurate informations themselves. For t
his Boston bombing incidence, social media site Reddit acknowledged its role in helping to
disseminate false information, saying, Some of the activity on reddit fueled online witch hunts
and dangerous speculation.(Petrecca). Even though the misleading informations are harmless m
ost of the time, they can be very wrong and dangerous such as this one two innocent young m
en were blamed for the bombing. The fact that so many people use social networks allows one pi
ece of information, possibly a false one, to spread really quickly and cause unnecessary confusio
ns and potential unrests. The traditional new networks, on that contrary, are usually able to avoid
making such mistakes because their information is usually confirmed through multiple sources b
efore it is included into the actual news.
Surprisingly though, New York Post, a well established traditional news network, also ma
de the same mistake and according to New York Times, two men have filed suit against The

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New York Post, accusing the paper of invading their privacy and inflicting emotional distress by
publishing an article that made them look as if they were suspected in the Boston Marathon
bombings case(Haughney). Such mistakes are very rare in the old news industry and therefore a
re treated very seriously when made.
Despite the terrible made my New York Post, such mistakes are still more likely to happe
n on social medias because instead of reading a complete report put together by a professional te
am, people have to piece together all the information they get online. Each of us constructs our
own personal mythology from bits and fragments of information extracted from the media flow a
nd transformed into resources through which we make sense of our everyday lives(Jenkins, 457).
Personally, I dont have a Twitter and I would rather watch the nightly news than having to piec
e everything together myself even if that means I had to be 20mins out of date.
Furthermore, the freedom audiences have in choosing the sources of information often re
sults in a narrower information source. Since everyone can choose the sources they like, one is v
ery likely to only talk with people with similar views and read news from Twitter accounts that th
ey like. As a result, It is now possible even common to go about your day in America and
consume only what you wish to see and hear(473). But there are a lot of important things that on
e may not agree with. He/she should still be informed about it even though he/she might not be w
illing to accept it. As Williams so neatly puts it, the problem is that theres a lot of information o
ut there that citizens in an informed democracy need to know in our complicated world with U.S.
troops on the ground along two major fronts(473). People are not able to make good decisions if
they are not well informed from multiple perspectives.

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Because no single type of news network is perfect for everything, both traditional and ne
w medias continue to compete, further contributing to the convergence culture. As Jenkins put it,
Each old medium was forced to coexist with the emerging media. Old media are not being di
splaced. Rather, their functions and status are shifted by the introduction of new technologies(46
4). As technology keeps improving, people will be able to access a lot more information in a lot
more different ways. Media networks will be able to deliver information through many more cha
nnels. Such constant changes of news medias will keep transform the way we get to know this w
orld. Both audiences and news networks will have to adapt to the changes in order to receive mor
e accurate and useful information and keep audiences attracted.

Bibliography:

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Bleiberg, Ben. "Boston Bombing Manhunt: Twitter Found the Boston Shooters Before CNN."
PolicyMic. N.p., 19 Apr. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

Levs, Josh. "Boy, 8, One of 3 Killed in Bombings at Boston Marathon; Scores Wounded." CNN.
Cable News Network, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

Rogers, Simon. "The Boston Bombing: How Journalists Used Twitter to Tell the Story." Twitter
Blogs. Twitter, 10 June 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

Petrecca, Laura. "Social Media Informs Many, Frustrates Some, after Boston Marathon
Bombing." USA Today. Gannett, 23 Apr. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.

Haughney, Christine. "New York Post Faces Suit Over Boston Bomb Article." New York Times.
New York Times, 6 June 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

Jenkins, Henry. "Convergence Culture." Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture
for Writers. Ed. Sonia Maasik. Boston: Bedford, 1997. 455-68. Print.

Johnson, Steven. "It's All about Us." Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for
Writers. By Sonia Maasik. Boston: Bedford, 1997. 468-71. Print.

Williams, Brian. "Enough about You." Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture
for Writers. By Sonia Maasik. Boston: Bedford, 1997. 472-74. Print.