What are we doing?

Alec Baldwin, “Hamilton,” “Saturday Night Live” and the presidency. In my years in digital and social media, I’ve never seen so many headlines about Twitter for the wrong reasons. I thought Twitter had been pushed to the limit when the Kardashians took it over.

Now Kim, Kanye and the gang have been pushed far to the side for at least the next four years while we watch Trumptwittergeddon play itself out.

Remember when Facebook saw a massive exodus of the younger crowd because their parents and grandparents started nosing around? Well, this is the same and completely opposite situation at the same time. It’s a hybrid of baby boomers and a nuclear bomb blowing up the platform with visions of shoving their point down our social media gullet while we’re trying to enjoy the latest hashtag from ComicCon or NCAA football.

Alas, here we are caught in the middle of what is equivalent to watching our parents argue about buying the wrong kind of salsa. Was the salsa that important? Does blame need to be put on who bought habanero salsa instead of mango salsa? No.

Do news headlines need to be taken up with President-elect Trump’s latest Twitter irritation about the media or protests or his steak dinner? To me, this isn’t a yes or no answer – because the media has been trained over the decades that anything the President or President-elect says is news.

Some find the Trump tweets as a refreshing look inside the mind and hair of our nation’s leader. Some see it as a politically dangerous way to communicate policy and day-to-day irritations with the world.

I believe it’s time to re-train the media and those who are covering the White House, politics, regulatory agencies and even credit unions.

No, I’m not saying that the media needs to move away from social media posts as news sources. I’m saying to embrace all forms of news and information; and from those sources, become more focused on what’s news for our audiences.

We are not Entertainment Tonight or TMZ. CU Times is a news organization for a very segmented group of a very large financial industry. If Trump tweeted something about credit unions, I’m sure that we would cover that for you and what it means, if anything, for our industry and audiences.

Social media has the power to cause riots, bring about uncertainty in the economy as well as make you feel nice when you see a new cat meme. This is where I think the traditional media is getting it all wrong when it comes to TwitterTrump. They’re not being discerning about what is being posted by our President-elect. It’s an all-or-nothing media approach to this new chapter in our presidential (and social media) history.

A recent headline proclaimed that “Donald Trump is now pop culture’s biggest target,” and if that’s the case then our news is going to be a mix of Entertainment Tonight, CNN and your local news. I’m calling it “Entertrumpent Today – Traffic and Trump on the 8s.” I fear that the use of presidential social media is going to obliterate us and push us away from these beautiful communication tools. And I fear that it’s going to upend what journalism should be – which is, the fourth estate. You know, that separate, annoying, question-asking side of the world we live in to help hold elected officials accountable? You know, that. I believe this fourth estate is in a real battle for relevancy from the 24-hour news consumptionathon and digital world that we exist in today.

What does this new notch in the journalism belt mean for CU Times? I don’t have that answer yet. I do understand the gravity of our latest news evolution and what it might mean as far as how our readers consume the important information we discover in order for you to be better informed about what’s happening in the credit union space.

For me, this is a moment to look forward into what news looks like in 2017. I believe, in the mainstream media world, the definition of news will continue to broaden into spaces normally left to BuzzFeed.

At CU Times, the definition of news will remain tightly focused on credit unions and this industry as a whole. I think what might change is how we deliver you the news and information to your brains. But that’s to be revealed at a later time.

Personally, I believe social media won the election. Facebook and Twitter, for sure, has become the news and information darling for this election cycle. I ask that you put aside Alex Baldwin, “Hamilton” and even President-elect Trump’s social media outbursts and put those into a junk food news pile to read on the weekend.

As news consumers, we need to get a handle on what we should expect from our traditional news organizations, because our news universe has changed into something I don’t quite recognize from my days as a radio and television reporter and anchor. And that’s OK.

We need to understand that social media news is here as its own news network. Twitter and Facebook are not just platforms to make your friends envy where you are on vacation. It’s a legitimate service. You just need to know how to use it.

Paris Hilton, if you’re still out there, come back! We need you now more than ever.

Michael Ogden is executive editor for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.

Instant Insights /

Trumptwittergeddon: Social Media Breeds a Warped Version of News

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