Death by social media

By C.E.O

The debate between social media and its proponents and opponents – ostensibly those in mainstream media – took a new twist two weeks ago. Caroline Mutoko put up a newspaper column that was highly critical of those who hide behind the anonymity of social media, numbskulls she called them, to write outrageous and downright offensive material.

Largely, she had a point – I did not like the tone of the piece, as most in the social media circles did not as well.

Very few can stand up to Mutoko in terms of influence and her sheer presence. When the story of Kenya’s radio industry will be written, her name will feature in several paragraphs.

However, it smacks of a little lack of finesse to use words that betray scorn, in response. Suddenly, it seemed like she was engaging with these people she was being dismissive of. And they hit back the best way they knew how. Within hours, there were trending topics on Twitter with Mutoko and her apparent age as the subject. Some blogs took the issue to shred her some more.

A few days later, this past weekend, there was ‘breaking news’ on the social sites of the main media houses that one of Kenya’s pioneer politician and businessman had died. Of course, I joined many in the panic, seeking to verify. Within hours, it became apparent that the news was false. Apologies were offered profoundly on these sites and a lot of damage control put into place.

This comes hot on the heels of that other ‘death’ created by social media when it was rumoured over the holiday season that legendary comedian Mzee Ojwang’ was dead. Internationally, the media have also ‘killed’ Nelson Mandela several times.

I remember another artiste was ‘killed’ after he apparently got injured after falling from a storeyed building. Eager to be the one to break the news, someone anonymously created a Facebook page mourning his death.

Turns out he was alive but critically injured. Watching the tasteless back-and-forth exchange and to imagine the agony his family was going through, it had sunk to totally new lows.

Unfortunately, the said artiste succumbed last week and another post – a real one this time – was put up.

You can imagine how uncomfortable this new posts seemed, in light of the fake ones that appeared a few weeks earlier.

Whoever puts up these posts is obviously not concerned with facts, but rather to put out news fast. That ambiguity is obviously being abused – that is where Mutoko was right. How she went about it, however, killed the point too.