Zing of authenticity.

Alex Goldman of On the Media explains how the world of twitter followed the scanners of the police looking for these Boston Bombing suspects.

 What was made clear was that over time and without proper context, certain tweets can be run amok of their original inception. He explains the recycling of tweets gathered from the police scanner as fact and then run back though the scanner as comfirmation. In other words, people broadcasted what police said on a scanner, police would then intercept these tweets and misinterpret them as fact. This sets a newer precedence as the police are grabbing at anything they can find, same as the reporters and average citizen tuning in. This precedence leads to misinformation and ultimately can lead to some embarrassing missteps in national and international reporting on the scene.

Its fast its live and its raw. No filters, no cover-ups, no gatekeepers. CNN and FOX continue to lose ground because of their issues with agenda setting and general time wasting filters and pundit discussions. For myself and Brandon (speculative but verified via blogger posts) we both enjoy getting our news without having to ask for information. Reddit finds the news we need, the posts are voted on to decide whats most relevant and then when we check our front pages, there it is waiting for us. Precise info that other stations and news media wouldnt mention due to vulgarity or a conflict with a personal agenda.

My news on Christopher Dorner's standoff was totally different than a good majority of viewers of CNN and FOX, thanks in part to scanners and Reddit. I had the manifesto, unfiltered explaining his reasons, his cause for his killings and deeply drawn out information that no other outlets would dare discuss. Instead of looking into the reasons of why he shot these people or pointing out the discrepancy in police reports and accidental "every truck is Christopher Dorner" shootouts. The media made it quickly and clearly conveyed to the public that this man was simply crazy. In the final standoff, you could hear through the scanners the plan to burn the house/cabin down section-by-section room by room. Scanner chatter about throwing the more flammable gas canisters into the house could be heard; "we need to burn this guy out", "cover the back doors he might try to run out when we torch the place", "burner 1 is out", "starting fire to room 2". Phrases similar to this can be heard live on the internet. There was to be no quarter for Dorner, no negotiations. The house burned down and we were supposed to throw out the whole theory of "maybe the LAPD and Cali. police arent as nice as we may believe".

So now we have scanners back for Boston, knowing from experience we tune-in. Not to the "fair and balanced" commentary of FOX, not to the "forward leaning" CNN and their many hologram Will.I.AM interviews about the bombers' alleged motives, we tune in to what is right out there from boots on the ground. Quick and concise information from the scanners (the same scanners that inspired the invention of Twitter in the first place). We intercept the reports, interpret, then tweet them to the mass public to see. The problem here was there was still an active manhunt at this point, police and swat didnt have suspect #2 surrounded in a cabin. The risk of tweeting misinformation for Dorner was minimal if the whole house was surrounded by police and tactical response units.The world was watching and waiting to see what would happen, speculation from the scanners were misread as fact and CNN published it the whole way though to be there first.

Is it authentic? Yes. At times when the police have control of the situation there's not much room for misinformation to travel, if I tweeted as Christopher Dorner saying "ha im actually in Nevada" police would throw it out since they had the cabin surrounded. In an active manhunt in this modern age, with police trying out every lead they can for the chance of finding the suspect, there certainly is a chance for trouble to come from the Zing of Authenticity.