Today, Twitter informed me via Associated Press tweet of a recent detainment by the FDA of imported pomegranates by a particular firm due to a multistate outbreak of Hepatitis A linked to their use in multiple organic fruit blends. I clicked on The Associated Press article to read more of the details surrounding this story at which point I learned that the FDA and CDC were able to determine the source of the outbreak due to the particular food's inclusion in similar products. For instance, several different organic health food fruit blends were obtaining their pomegranate seeds from the same Turkish company, Goknur. I found this to be extremely ironic and quite sad that one of the most expensive fruits that is marketed and sold in the United States is the pomegranate and furthermore, unsuspecting consumers were paying a premium for organic foods that in turn gave them a serious viral infection. Why steer clear of nonorganic foods in fear of ingesting pesticides just to pay more for organic foods and become infected with Hepatitis A? There seemed quite a disconnect and I was intrigued by the process in which this has occurred.
After reading the AP article on their own web site sent from the Twitter link, I wanted to see of other reports of this same occurrence so I Googled "FDA pomegranate" to find ten different sources (Yahoo! News, NBC News, Boston Herald and foodsafetynews.com to name a few) on results page one reporting the same story, the first being from the FDA itself.
News for fda pomegranate
natmonitor.com
FDA to detain pomegranate seeds offered for import from Goknur of Turkey
FDA.gov - 11 hours agoThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration will detain shipments ofpomegranate seeds from Goknur Gida Maddeleri Ithalat Ihracat Tic [Goknur ...
- This got me wondering about the details of Hepatitis A and its level of seriousness so I went to Wikipedia and searched "Hepatitis A" where I read about some of the effects on the body as well as the largely Western eradication of the disease via prevention. Lo and behold, the very last subject was regarding cases and the last listed was the most recent, added today which states:
- In June 2013, frozen berries sold by US retailer Costco and purchased by around 240,000 people were the subject of a recall, after at least 118 people were infected with HAV.[35]
The separating element between the story on FDA detainment of pomegranates one like the Three Mile Island meltdown story (CNN) is the gravity of events. The reactor meltdown means radiation leakage for possibly thousands of people as well as contaminated water and soil whereas the source of the contaminated pomegranate seeds was already determined and posed no future threat as it could be avoided. The issue with the reactor meltdown is that at that point ... it was out of the hands of the people to prevent.
The question of "How do you know what you know?" can be interpreted as one of source, "How do you come about finding the things that you know?" or one of validity, "How do you know if what you learned is really true?" The answer lies in the interest of the end-user and how far he or she wants to dig to find it referenced in enough cases to make it more than just a one-off incidence. In this instance, multiple credible news sources were attributed to the broadcasting of this story, all of whom have reputations and obligations to uphold. The only feasible idea as to why this particular story would permeate our preferred search engine, our preferred online encyclopedia and one of the world's biggest forums for social media and still not be true is if it were a case of agenda setting and corruption that would involve the federal government, its agencies and publicly and privately-owned news sources. This is not entirely out of the picture but in weighing its validity and its sources, the offending parties would have to have a serious motivation to commit such acts.Social media can be used to obtain credible information because it is in large, a re-sourcing of information. A re-tweet can be posted by anyone on Twitter but the source is still embedded, they are just helping the information to spread. In such instances, they would normally choose to re-post, re-tweet items that are of personal interest to them. Social media in the regard of credible information is used as a vehicle to transport such ideas. Yes, they are alterable messages, however if the message appears enough times then its consistency will be revealed.ReferencesThe Associated Press (29 June 2013). Retrieved 29 June 2013. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fda-detain-import-firms-pomegranate-seeds.
CNN. Pump Triggers Three Mile Island Reactor Shutdown, NRC says. Retreived from http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/20/us/pennsylvania-three-mile-island/index.html.Wikipedia (n.d.). Retrieved 29 June 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_A.
I really like your point about how social media can be seen as a vehicle to transport different ideas. Having an initial source to accompany an idea (like in a re-tweet) definitely adds to the credibility of an idea. I think that transparency, like having sources easy to access, allows audiences the option of doing their own investigating but also shows them that someone else has already looked into the matter too.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, do you think that people are more likely to blindly accept information if it appears to come from a reliable source? Or do you think that showing the source of information leads to more research on the topic?
Thanks for sharing!
Lexie,
DeleteI think most times, the transparency of providing the source would be sufficient for for most folks if it is a relatively straight-forward or shallow topic. I think listing the hard news sources on social media sites serves a purpose for those who want further information. To answer your questions, I think it depends on the topic. Thanks for reading!
Emily,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! You sound like an experienced sleuth of the truth. I like that you took information and wanted to research it in two different ways, like each of the two gentlemen we learned about this week did. First you validated that the reports weren't simply the "clerkism" Homer Bigart (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 27) talked about where the stories were reported but not necessarily checked out. Next you also to found out more about the story like John Crewdson, essentially asking the question “Is the information complete; and if not, what is missing? (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 60)”
While I wish we didn’t have to think this way, I like the way you considered how this could have been a story written to harm the source, but evaluated why that didn’t seem like it was the case in this instance.
I will research it to see if I can find an answer, but your comment
Social media can be used to obtain credible information because it is in large, a re-sourcing
of information. A re-tweet can be posted by anyone on Twitter but the source is still
embedded, they are just helping the information to spread.
made me think. I wonder if there are statistics on the number of times, on average, an original post is reposted in part or in its entirety?
Have you ever fallen victim to someone who spread lies or a hoax through social media?
Reference
Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2010). Blur: How to know what’s true in the age of information overload. New York City, New York: Bloomsbury.
Thanks for your comment, Sue. I, too find it interesting about the "editing" of re-tweets or re-posts and the depth of them. I think if anything, others will chop it down like we do as writers, take the part that is crucial to the point and move on with your position. I think it is almost more interesting when others just retweet or repost a whole article or link and let you decide for yourself without interjecting politically charged commentary. Sometimes those comments can't be avoided, myself included but they have a time and a place.
DeleteFortunately, no I have not experienced believing something posted that turned out to be completely false. The last time I was (at least knowingly) gullible was in an undergrad Sociology reading (book - old but beloved media!) about the "Nacirema" people... I was reading about them and trying to understand their oddly-described plight when it turned out to be a satire-posed-as-sociology reading about the plight of the "American" (Nacirema spelled backward) people. Felt so duped. :(