TikTok and the “New News” Media

Paul MatzkoTake a  second and think about how you heard about the recent train derailment in Ohio, which created a giant cloud of toxic chemicals and forced a mass evacuation. It’s the plot ofWhite Noise come to life.If you ’re reading this, then odds are you first heard about the crash online. But if you’re one of the dwindling number of people who rely on local newspapers and tv station for news, then you’ll likely have seen stories that mostly just repeat official statements from the authorities.“If you are in this red zone that is on the map, and you refuse to evacuate, you are risking death,”said PA Governor Josh Shapiro. Ohio’s Governor Mike Dewineavers, “We were in a position where we had to weigh different risks with no great choices.”If you ’re lucky, maybe you also got a man on the street style interview from a nearby resident. That’s generally the stuff of local news reporting: official statements + neighbor reaction.Now contrast that to how I —and one million other people thus far—learned key details about the train derailment: a TikTokvideo created by an entrepreneur and industrial designer from nearby Pittsburgh. In under three minutes, I  learned to appreciate the drastic difference between the release of vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride, how the crash has released a million pounds of a substance for which the safe exposure limit is sub-*one part per million*, and how burning it off ultimately creates clouds of hydrochl...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs