The article “Should Reddit Be Blamed for the Spreading of
Smear?” was published on the New York Times online magazine on the 25th
of July this year. Written by Jay
Caspian King, the article discusses the website Reddit and its role within our
society as a news outlet and forum, where citizens can go to find information
or post their own information and scoops.
King discusses the news coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombings, and
the false identification of Sunil Tripathi as suspect number two that was originally
posted on Reddit and then spread throughout the news community. Jay Caspian King is a journalist who for his
majority writes for the popular sports and pop-culture blog, Grantland. He has also written pieces for other news
outlets such as Wired, The Morning News, and
The Atlantic. Wired is a magazine that reports on emerging technologies and their
affects on culture, the economy and politics.
In this way it easy to see the qualifications Jay Caspian King has in
reporting about Reddit and its affects on our news. Within his article, King spent a large amount
of time providing examples to how Reddit played a large role in the false
accusation of Sunil’s involvement in the bombings. He also provided a large description of
Reddit itself and how it got its beginnings.
Jay Caspian King paints the picture of Reddit’s guilt, but also provides
the reader with context of how other news outlets played just as big of a role
in the false accusation. It is difficult
to find a large bias within the piece as within the beginning of the piece
there seems to be a pointed finger at Reddit, but as the piece continues King
discusses the fault in all news outlets, in their rush to be the first with the
information.
The reader is provided with even more belief in the quality
of the reporting within the article based on the outlet in which it was
published. The New York Times was founded in 1835 and has been distributing
quality news ever since, winning 112 Pulitzer prizes for its journalism, more
than any other news outlet. With its
reputation it is easy for one to feel what he/she is reading is quality. The NY
Times states its mission “ is to enhance society by creating, collecting
and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.” This article does just that, it provides
society with a view of both Reddit as well as other news sources and discusses
how they in a way jumped the gun and provided false information just to be the
first to do so. In this way, the article
also provides bias for the NY Times
as it slightly bashes other news sources such as Reddit, Twitter, and certain
newscasters and in this way excludes the New
York Times from false reporting or “jumping the gun.” The article makes the NY Times look good as they weren’t mentioned as providing this
false accusation during the its occurrence and in this way they are provided
with more examples of the quality of their journalism.
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