Is technology killing personal communication?
The first time I ever heard a reporter cite a text message as the source of a quote was this past summer when ESPN did a story on Mark Cuban being interested in buying the Chicago Cubs. I was watching Sports Center and the story went something like this:
ESPN Anchor: “The Tribune Corporation has announced that it is going to sell the Chicago Cubs. Immediately after this announcement, rumors began to swirl that Mark Cuban is among a select group of interested parties. We tracked down Mr. Cuban and received this exclusive statement from him via text message…”
I remember thinking, “Text message? Did he just say that? You guys really couldn’t get Cuban on the phone? What the heck happened to our lines of communication?”
I quickly dismissed this as a one time, freak occurrence and returned my attention to the story at hand.
In the following weeks, however, I began to notice that a number of sports reporters were quoting their sources from text messages or emails they had received. What I thought was a one time occurrence, was quickly becoming the popular trend.
Yesterday, I went onto www.espn.com and typed “text message” into their search engine. I received 1,167 articles containing the words text message somewhere in the story. After clicking on a few pages of links, I noticed that way more than half of the articles had reporters quoting sources via text message. Apparently the trend has turned into an epidemic.
Though I have not witnessed evidence of the text message movement spilling over into other media outlets, I have to admit that I find ESPN’s story gathering methods in this regard to be lazy, unprofessional, and, in a lot of ways, frightening.
Why? Because technology is tearing down the lines of personal communication and human interaction, particularly among people of my generation.
And it’s not just happening in the sports media world. Take a look at our personal and professional lives. People at giant corporations and small businesses alike send each other emails or instant messages, often times to people who work in the office or the cubicle right next to them! People get phone calls from friends they don’t feel like talking to, let their voicemail pick it up, and then shoot that person a text message response. Roommates experiencing problems don’t talk face-to-face, opting instead to stew about their issues over night, only to send each other novel-length emails from work the next morning.
I, of course, am guilty of doing these things too (where do you think I got these examples), but that doesn’t mean I think its right. It is easy to understand why my generation prefers using technology to communicate; it dulls a lot of the human emotion that goes into personal communication. It makes saying the difficult things easier and provides a barrier that we can hide behind when things become too uncomfortable.
As understandable as that may be, why are we slowly beginning to communicate solely through new technology? As communication professionals, should we be worried? Are the lines of communication as our parents knew them being destroyed or are we simply evolving and embracing the technologies of the time? How will technology affect the way we gather and tell stories? Will ESPN-style text message interviews become the norm and if so, how will we be able to hold sources accountable? What affect will technology have on the media’s ability to spin the truth?
I have to admit that maybe it’s just me. Maybe, at the age of 28, I’m just an out-of-date old fart; already set in the ways of the dinosaurs, unable or unwilling to evolve with the rest of my generation.
Or maybe not.
Maybe there are others who believe, as I do, that no matter what new technologies the future brings, it is important for everyone to remember, particularly those of us in the media or communications fields, that there really is no substitute for personal communication and human interaction.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Love this post, and I am pretty upset of the rumors flying around about MLB denying Cuban a chance to own the Cubs. Why, because he is uber-rich and is very sports knowledgeable? Yes I know he is over the top, but come on, we are now in our 101 year re-building stage, lets us have something please.
I think it’s just the way times are changing. When I attended the IABC Writing Conference’s interviewing session one of the number one things they preached to us when interviewing is to not go for news release answers or information. In order to go beyond those types of answers you have to interact with face-to-face communication to put the interviewee on the spot, create emotion, and gather some non-verbal reactions. How can you do that through texting or emailing?
I am also reminded while reading this story when my mom and step dad each got their first cell phone. I was teaching them basic stuff, how to use it, check their voicemail, then I went into texting…and their eyes went cross-eyed and we took a break.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Tom makes a great point. As a college journalism major and former reporter, I have always believed that understanding the context in which something is said, is vital to understanding the true meaning of what is being said.
Apparently, that is an old school lesson that my mentor at DU and my first editor in D.C. handed down to me. Had they ever found out that I was conducting interviews via text message or email, they would have pounded me into the ground like a railroad spike.
How can a reporter communicate to his or her audience the true nature of a story without being there in person to experience the sights, sounds, smells and emotions that those events produce?
Sure, you may get all the facts you need from a text message or an email and you can probably write an accurate story, but adding a little color doesn’t take away from the truth of a story and I think it makes for better, more engaging writing.
FYI - Cuban was charged with insider trading yesterday, giving MLB owners more fuel to keep him out of the league, regardless of whether he is prosecuted or not.