Sources and social media: A Thread.

The Tl:dr of all this will be that if you want to be taken seriously you should be providing them btw

So, lets be real, Twitter is primarily an informal medium. It'd be egregious to respond to personal anecdotes with "Source?", no matter who the person involved is. You think the person isn't being truthful? They mightn't be. Apply your sense and make your own decisions.

If it's not personal though, if you're reporting on a situation, or giving financial advice, healthcare advice, you Should be providing sources. Even if it seems like it should be easily acceptable information, even if you know you're right, even if you feel fully credible

The reason is obvious: People lie online all the time. Like all the time. Providing sources helps to prove you are not one of them.

If you want to be taken seriously, cite your sources.

Not because you shouldn't be believed otherwise, but it does increase your credibility

If you want to be taken seriously as an authority, demonstrate that you're an authority.

Demonstrate your research. Provide some level of reference for your personal/professional experience. Otherwise don't be surprised (or worse, offended) if people doubt you.

Unfortunately, you've given them no reason not to.

So, you've written a thread on something you want to be taken seriously? Link the articles you've read. Reference people you've spoken to about it. It's a bit more effort, sure, but it legitimises you and your thread

Two individuals who work in the same uni, same department, on the same team, can read as two different levels of authority on that subject, based on things like whether they reference their accreditation in their bio or not, or if they reference their experience in a thread

Its not about the experience you have, its the experience you show yourself to have.

It's not what you know, its what you can prove you know

That's the key. Your audience don't know you. They're not in your head.

Sure, its not essential. Sure, you're not being graded on this, you're not gunning for academic publishing.

But you are attempting to prove yourself to an audience. So prove yourself to them.

Don't expect your past to speak for your present. Back up your knowledge

Inspiration for this thread: a long dialogue in a group chat I'm in, and an alarming number of people on the TL responding to people asking for a source with the "google is free" sentiment

Source: 3 years experience in student journalism, primarily. It does make you look at things a hell of a lot more closely online. Whether rightly or not, people who provide sources/evidence for educational/instructional tweets are more believable.

They read more as authorities, and are more likely to be treated as such.

Fair or not, that is the reality.

I didn't do a great deal of research for this thread except personal conversation, so thats it on citations for this one folks. I do recognise that this feels hypocritical, it feels that way even to me, but I've been writing this for 30 mins already and I'm tired