The Trouble(s) with Anonymous Sources

by Dan Ward

 

 

It seems like almost every news report you watch, hear or read nowadays includes the line “according to sources.”

In the rush to publish a new angle to a story, media turn to anonymous sources, “insiders” who share new details with the promise that their identities will not be shared.  Anonymity was once provided to shield sources from dangerous repercussions (including prosecution), but now it seems anonymity is granted as a matter of course.

But when you don’t know who the sources are, how do you know whether they’re reliable?

Take the latest egg-on-face moment for ABC News, which is still recovering from the Brian Ross fiasco on the coverage of the horrific shootings in Aurora.

The network reported Tuesday that the gunman “is spitting at jail officers so frequently that at one point he was made to wear a face guard, sources told ABC News.”

But then the Denver ABC affiliate, KMGH, contradicted the story, saying that those reports were “simply false.”  Where did KMGH get this information?  You guessed it.  The news was “according to knowledgeable sources.”  (At least their unnamed sources were knowledgeable.)

How about asking one of these knowledgeable sources to go on the record?  If a source isn’t accountable for his or her statement, how are we to know what to believe?

Are You Making These Five Twitter Mistakes?

by Kim Taylor

If you begin a tweet with @username—that’s a reply—which is only seen by the person you’re replying to and those followers shared between both you and that user. If you mean for it to be shared in the public stream, either re-phrase the tweet so the @username isn’t first, or use a period just before it.

Syncing your Facebook and Twitter can work, but if you tweet, “Like this post if cupcakes are your favorite treat,” your users know that information isn’t meant for them. If you’re syncing your accounts, be sure your messages work for both platforms.

Scheduling tweets is a social media manager’s best friend. However, scheduling multiple tweets which result in inadvertently flooding your followers’ Twitter stream is a quick way to lose followers. Schedule wisely.

Stop the automatic direct messages. They are trite, useless and do nothing but make you look like a less savvy user.

Don’t treat Twitter as a one-way communication vehicle. If your Twitter strategy includes only retweeting what others say about you and promoting yourself or your product, you’re doing it wrong. Success on Twitter comes from two-way communication. Listening and sharing with intermittent promotion sprinkled in is a strategy for success.