No jornalismo, checar as informações e apurar os dados são procedimentos básicos. Imaginem publicar informações do twitter sem essas rotinas? Foi o que fez a BBC ao utilizar os microbloges para noticiar os ataques a Mombaim (Mumbai). A velocidade dos acontecimentos, a necessidade de inovar e dar informação são alguns fatores que podem ter levado a BBC a cometer os erros.

Steve Herrmann, editor da BBC News, escreveu uma reflexão interessante sobre a cobertura. Vale a pena ler:

“Should we have checked this before reporting it? Made it clearer that we hadn’t? We certainly would have done if we’d wanted to include it in our news stories (we didn’t) or to carry it without attribution. In one sense, the very fact that this report was circulating online was one small detail of the story that day. But should we have tried to check it and then reported back later, if only to say that we hadn’t found any confirmation? I think in this case we should have, and we’ve learned a lesson. The truth is, we’re still finding out how best to process and relay such information in a fast-moving account like this”.
Via Techradar e Indústrias Culturais

Alberto Marques