False tweet sinks stock market. Is anyone checking this stuff?

Stock markets tanked briefly (and then recovered) after the AP Twitter account was hacked and falsely announced a White House bombing. An array of new firms verify social media information to make sure clients aren't fooled.

By Gloria Goodale,?Staff writer / April 23, 2013

The White House was not bombed Tuesday, despite a fake tweet from AP to the contrary. These police were part of stepped up security Sunday in the wake of the Boston bombings.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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Within 60 seconds of the Associated Press tweeting that the White House had been bombed ? a tweet that sent stock markets into a tailspin ? subscribers to Storyful knew it was a hoax.

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The AP Twitter feed, it turns out, had been hacked, and stock markets quickly recovered. But the incident highlighted why Storyful exists. In a social media world gone mad, it is one of a handful of new companies trying to fill the growing need for some form of social media information verification.

That need has been abundantly apparent during the past week. While law enforcement in the Boston bombing case called for the community to send photos, videos, and ideas, the response on social media included reams of raw information ? much of it false ? and half-baked theories. The family of a missing Brown University student had to refute false claims that he was involved.

At times, the news media were drawn into the spiral of social media of misinformation, and that is what Storyful hopes to remedy. Billed as the first news agency for the social media age, this global enterprise of some 35 professionals ? many refugees from media such as CNN ? scans social media to alert clients about news before even local wires, TV, or radio have picked it up. It then cross-checks the information to verify sources.

As social media becomes a greater part of the news media landscape, Storyful is just the sort of venture that could help each improve the other.

?We need both social and traditional journalism in our current age ? not one versus the other, not one or the other, but both,? says Paul Levinson, a professor of media studies at Fordham University in New York and author of ?New New Media,? via e-mail. ?Storyful looks like a significant step forward in bridging this gap.?

Storyful may be the most full-service provider in this growing space, providing not just verification but alerts and help with managing rights and usage. Based in Dublin, Ireland, but with staff in Asia, Europe, and the US, Storyful now boasts a roster of major news outlets from Bloomberg News to The New York Times.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/0K27qw5omXc/False-tweet-sinks-stock-market.-Is-anyone-checking-this-stuff

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