News: Accuracy and Trust
(March 10, 2009) How far can you trust the news that comes to you through a social network? That question has come up a couple of ways in recent days. There’s a big question, context, and a little question, accuracy. Maybe there’s a third, credibility.
As a bit of background, I’ve cancelled the newspapers, don’t watch TV and recently moved to a place where the local paper reports on the fire department’s crab and polenta feeds. If I didn’t have a hunger for global news, I wouldn’t need to get any out here. The finches, raptors, seals and starfish don’t seem to notice our silly little economic troubles.
But, I’m curious and want to see the big picture. So, I get lots of news online. You can see the flow by following me on Twitter. Lots of news is a good thing. Seeing the big picture is an entirely different question.
While Google News provides an interesting flow of material, it lacks editorial vigor. Google can only tell you about stories that have a lot of traction. If the news were a popularity contest, Google would have a very clever angle. But, the news is moved by little things that explode into the national consciousness.
For instance, using my approach to following the news, I completely missed the virtual bankruptcy of the FDIC. This is really something. I missed it because I glaze over a certain range of national news. It took a good editor (Dave Winer) to point out the importance of the story. Being your own newspaper means that you have to trust other people to find things out for you.
That’s where we get to the second piece, accuracy.
On Monday, I followed the Tweets (sorry) of a person sometimes known as PunkRockHR (Laurie Ruettimann). She was microblogging from the a speech given by Laurence O’Neil, the president of SHRM at the Legislative Conference. (The Tweet Flow is here).
In her coverage, Ms Ruettimann noted that O’neil said “HR is nothing less than civil rights and human rights.“Jessica Lee, another microblogger at the convention heard “Wow. HR is the continuation of civil rights”
Now, you know me. I am a fan of social media and believe that this thing is quickly shifting the world. But, I have a hard time basing my worldview on the twitterings of a PunkRockHR person and another whose blog opens with “I hate the saying but sometimes isn’t karma really a total bitch? you know what i mean?“
So here I sit with an outrageous quote, an itchy keyboard finger and nothing in the way of context or credibility.
It’s really easy to believe that the president of SHRM could be out of touch enough to think that it’s okay to say HR is nothing less than civil rights and human rights.” HR people are that out of touch with their organizations. They see no conflict between having an external political agenda and ‘having a seat at the strategy table’. Which flavor of human and civil rights do you suppose HR stands for? Are they for or against the human and civil rights of the unborn? Is HR really supposed to be the PC police, extending and policing rights? Are they really supposed to be an organizations arbiter of politics beyond the law?
Or is the job simply educational and administrative?
Please don’t misunderstand me. I have a deep and longstanding history as an activist in Human and Civil Rights work. My personal views extend them well past their current boundaries. I just don’t think that it’s the business of a function in an organization to serve that agenda.
HR is an important administrative function. HR can make an astonishing difference by controlling and improving talent acquisition, development and deployment. HR has an important role to serve in education and documentation.
However, to suggest that HR is an arm of the Human and Civil Rights movement is to misunderstand HR and to insult those precious rights movements. Typically, legislation is written to correct HR practices, not to enshrine them. To say the “HR is nothing less than civil rights and human rights.” is the worst sort of doublespeak. It sullies the teensy bit of credibility that HR Departments work so hard to build.
I’m on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendfeed. Catch up with me.
