Word of Mouse: Credibility, Journalism and Emerging Social Media

Abstract

On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced that he had chosen Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, as his running mate. The surprising choice of the little‐known Palin captured the nation’s attention; her status as just the second woman ever to run on a major party ticket was but one among many reasons. Interest in America’s long and hotly contested electoral campaign soon began to reach a fevered pitch.

Several days later, I received a message from a journalist and trusted friend via Facebook, the online social network. Her characteristically brief “Check this out!” introduction referred to the forwarded text of an email from Anne Kilkenny, a woman neither of us knew. Kilkenny resides in the small Alaskan city of Wasilla, and her message concerned a woman she knew well—Wasilla’s former mayor Sarah Palin. “Dear friends,” Kilkenny’s email1 began. “So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up.”