What Next TBD: Social Media’s Pivot from News

Slate Technology

Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It wasn’t long ago when social media was a place to go for up-to-the-minute updates in an emergency. But even as internet access is more widespread than ever—and natural disasters more frequent—Twitter and Facebook are less useful than ever. As hubs for news, that era appears over. Guest: Will Oremus, tech reporter for the Washington Post. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I made you think you was real.
0:02.0	My name is Caden Sinclair.
0:04.0	Some people call us American royalty.
0:06.0	We were Liars.
0:08.0	A new series on Prime Video.
0:10.0	We were happy. We wanted for nothing.
0:12.0	Based on the best-selling novel.
0:15.0	Something terrible happened last summer,
0:17.0	and I have no memory of what or who hurt me.
0:20.0	No one in my family will tell me.
0:22.6	When you're left for dead, you want answers. We Will Liars. New series, watch now, only on Prime Video.
0:33.6	This is what it looks like in the early hours in the Tampa Bay area as Hurricane Adalia gets closer to landfall.
0:40.4	Storm surge is beginning to flood some roads and water is already beginning to rise up buildings in Gulfport.
0:47.6	Earlier this week, as Hurricane Adalia made landfall, I couldn't help but think about what it was like to cover a natural disaster
0:54.9	just a few years ago. I've been in several hurricanes and other disasters, and during those
1:01.9	times, I'd often find myself turning to social media to get the latest news.
1:07.1	You would be on Twitter during an event like that, refreshing constantly, seeing the latest
1:13.2	pictures from their people are uploading from their homes, seeing the latest news reports,
1:19.3	seeing news organizations, often sort of live blogging it and linking to their coverage.
1:27.4	That's Will Oremus, a reporter at the Washington Post.
1:31.3	Will wrote about the role that social networks have played in our modern disasters.
1:36.7	Twitter in a disaster could turn into basically a real-time news feed.
	...

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