The power of social media has recently been displayed with the “rags to riches” New York Knicks phenomenon Jeremy Lin. For those who may not follow the NBA as closely as other sports Jeremy Lin received no athletic scholarships out of high school and was undrafted out of college. The 2010 Harvard graduate recently joined the New York Knicks for the 2011-2012 season only to prove his greatness to the world and its doubters. He was recently promoted to the starting line up for the Knicks while leading the team to a winning streak. After his winning streak with the Knicks the new term “Linsanity” was developed for him and his prominence.
Due to his recent track of stardom, his name has been headlined in many news sources and social media outlets including ESPN. Due to the speed of social media and the ability to never hide from your mistakes the headline published by ESPN titled “Chink in the Armor” made trending topics and blew up social media outlets globally within 35 minutes. The writer responsible for publishing the headline on ESPN.com was fired immediately and ESPN Ancho Matt Bretos was suspended for 30 days after using the term on national television. The headline went up around 2:30 p.m and was taken down at 3:05 p.m. after the commotion it caused.
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook blew up with shock toward the indecent and inappropriate headline issued by ESPN.com. Although the writer who published the headline claimed there was no racism toward the headline, there was no returning from a globally trending topic and huge mistake. Once you are guilty in the court of public opinion it becomes almost impossible to reverse.
The speed of social media has made it impossible for writers, editors and reporters to make mistakes. When mistakes are made it is usually known nationally within a matter of seconds even before the writer has caught it. For example, Erin Andrews used the wrong “your” in one of her tweets and was called out by multiple Twitter followers and fans after making this common mistake. “You are not perfect anymore” one tweet stated after her grammatical mistake. She quickly issued a tweet in reply to her fans and followers saying, “that is why spellcheck is important.” In today’s world of social media, speed and quickness is everything however, we cannot forget about double and triple checking our tweets and posts before pressing send because it is impossible to hide once we have made them.
I feel as though celebrities are judged the most when it comes to what they post online. When your friend, schoolmate, or someone you follow posts something with a grammatical error, usually we just brush it off and don't make a big deal out of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to celebrities and other people of importance, we expect them to be flawless. This is true about their appearance as well. The people who are always in the public eye 24/7 are being critiqued for everything.
I feel that even though they are being scrutinized to the extreme at times, it is still important they double check what they post for the world to see. Whether it is content or grammar, they have a voice and it is being heard by many. They might as well make sure what they say is intelligent, appropriate, and positive.
I definitely agree with the timeliness of social media. One's mistakes are looked at under a microscope and individuals online are ready to pounce on any misstep or mistake they find, which was what happened with this article. As public relations professionals, we need to make sure that we check and recheck our statements, tweets, press releases and anything that is published to make sure it is correct. People are quick to judge and will do just this if you are at fault.
ReplyDeleteI don’t follow sports much but this Lin guy sounds pretty awesome! Good for him! And what a perfect example of how the speed of the internet and social media can ruin reputations and even careers. I’ve taken several journalism classes dealing with things ranging from the importance of proper grammar to ethical professionalism. While you’ve mentioned both of these situations, the seriousness of the two is drastically different. Poor grammar may lead readers to think you’re lazy. However, making racial slurs within a report is not only unprofessional but also wrong! Everyone needs to watch what they say these days!
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