#trending

A week ago today, the office was all of a flutter as reports started to emerge of a disturbance on Tottenham Court Road.

Now Michael Green (the source of disruption) taught me one thing that day; if you want to create an impact on a weekday in central London- kick off at lunchtime. As we sat, chomping on our bagels and browsing our twitter feeds, office workers across town were roused from their state of Friday lethargy by the noise of sirens and reports of an armed man. Suddenly there was something to talk about- and when I say talk- I mean tweet.

Within minutes each of us, closeted as we were in our Marylebone office, had our own account of events. At first Starbucks was touted as a possible target but soon it became clear that a nearby HGV training facility was the focus of unrest. Initial reports also implicated a disgruntled employee, but then course failure was exposed to be the bone of contention.

The power of social media is no longer in dispute.  The 2011 protests in Egypt have been widely dubbed the Facebook revolution and in March 2012 a viral YouTube video catapulted the Kony 2012 campaign to fame. Never before though, has the role of social media as a disseminator of up-to-the-minute information been made more apparent to me.

Last Friday everyone in the surrounding offices had the opportunity to become a reporter for the day- and they took it. Just after 12.30 the first pictures of flying filing cabinets began to appear on twitter and soon #tcr and #HGV were both trending. One particular YouTube video began to make an appearance. It showed Abby Baafi, the alleged target of the attack, giving her version of events.

Yet in the clamour of conflicting information, some voices remained noticeably silent… or at least frustratingly vague. Initial reports on the BBC news website seemed to centre more on subsequent bus route diversions than the incident itself and although certified journalists were on the scene, their voices lacked definition against the chorus of amateurs.

The BBC and national newspapers’ reticence in reporting is, if not reasonable, then certainly understandable. These are organisations that have a responsibility and legal obligation to tell the truth. Their distribution of unauthenticated and therefore possibly false information could not only damage their reputations, but also end in expensive liable cases.

Nevertheless, when the modern world demands delivery of real time information, where does this leave them? Cynics might say nowhere- that breaking news reporters are dinosaurs due for extinction, casualties of the social media impact, but I believe the situation is more nuanced than this.

Call me naïve, call me nostalgic but I do not foresee the end to quality reporting coming any time soon.  Yes our approach to media is evolving but until twitter can weed out the fact from fiction and provide me with one objective account of events, there will always be room in my life for the BBC. 

By Polly Robinson