People today are willing to accept anything as truth. Some regular person can snap a picture and add a caption and automatically it's reliable news. You need to rely on the professionals to keep you as informed as possible.
While it's easier to go on Twitter, you need something more reliable for your news. Twitter doesn't require fact checking. That Twitter user isn't properly trained to provide news to you. The anchors and reporters of your local news channel are. The writers for various news websites are. I must implore you to remember the importance of trusting professional journalists over citizen journalists.
In a recent meeting of The Society of Professional Journalism, Executive Editor of Amarillo Global News Lee Wolverton said, "To me that's what journalism is really all about. It's about producing work that changes the way things are done... That's what it's all about and we have a rare privilege in our profession to do that." Professional journalists are not only trained in what they do but they simply love what they do.
In a much more blunt opinion, Phillip Defranco, host of a popular YouTube news channel, mentions the true dangers of trusting citizen journalists without question. He mentions a hypothetical scenario where someone says, "Did you know that ice cream causes cancer?" and notes his response would be, "I should probably not relay that information to millions of people that are looking on me to actually be correct and talk with thought." While much more blunt, he makes a good point. You should never even question whether you should trust your news sources to professionals. It should just be natural.
Without question, when it comes to your news, it shouldn't be amateur hour. Professional journalists are the only real journalists. They are trained professionals who cannot tell you anything without going through a gruesome fact checking process administered by other trained professionals first. Choose your news source wisely. Leave it to the professionals.
