Social Insecurity

It wouldn't quite be accurate to say that we learned this week to think before you post things on social media. We -- I'm assuming you're neither Roseanne Barr nor Bryan Colangelo -- knew that already. But what's obvious to most people still gets some folks in trouble, whether for crossing the line into racism or using sockpuppet accounts, so here we are.

I think it's worth some thought to apply what we've seen on Twitter this week (and for a while) to what you do on talk radio. I'm not certain that the reaction to bad or controversial tweets is entirely analogous to what you'd get saying outrageous things on talk radio, because the audiences, and perhaps the expectations, are different. The people listening to you on the radio are, for the most part, there because they want to be there and hear what you say. There's a context to it, and there's your vocal inflection that makes it clear when something's serious or a joke. You don't have that on Twitter or Facebook unless you flat-out tell people what your intentions are, and you aren't going to do that.

But more to the point, tweets are more likely to be seen by people who don't agree with them. For talk radio, that happens only when someone like Media Matters pulls a segment from a show and posts something about it. In social media, everything is out there, from the President's rage tweets to someone with 12 followers making rude comments, and all it takes is one user with a sizable following to amplify a comment to the point where it's trending and someone's career is in trouble. The danger of your thoughtless comment becoming a career-ender is much greater when it's sitting there in everyone's timeline waiting for someone to notice.

Which is not to say that you can say or do anything on talk radio because nobody will complain. Stupid is stupid, racism is racism, indefensible is indefensible, whether it's in 280 characters or on the radio or in a Facebook post. I've seen some talk hosts posting pretty terrible stuff on Facebook and I wonder when and if that kind of thing will become an issue for them. I get the feeling that some hosts use Facebook to post stuff they know they couldn't say on the air; they forget that, you know, people can SEE those posts. If you wouldn't say it on the air, maybe it's not something you want to say, period.

And that points out another thing: While some people would say that social media is/are the "new talk radio," Twitter/Facebook/Snapchat/Instagram and radio are different media in which different content will work. In talk radio, the host controls the content, manages the flow, can maintain the conversation at any level and keep things moving. In social media, the comments and replies can take things far away from the initial comment, or can create the kind of controversy that derails careers. There's no control. And you can't regain control by responding to every comment -- never feed the trolls -- or jumping in with burner accounts -- you'll get exposed.

It's a difficult balancing act. Talk radio has trained itself to embrace conflict and make sweeping generalizations and edgy (but not TOO outrageous) comments to get the phones going and keep the P1s listening. Social media has both made the REALLY extreme stuff commonplace and has engendered backlashes that amplify the polarization of the audience. I'm not sure what this really means for talk radio, having been supplanted as the place for the hottest takes and the most extreme positions and where the audience can weigh in with their own hot takes and extreme positions. But if you're tempted to take your radio show even more over the line because that's what you see on Twitter, that's a dangerous place to go. Ask yourself if what you're thinking of saying is worth either the risk of lost advertising or even just a loss of self-respect. I know you know this. And it doesn't mean you have to be so "careful" that you become boring. Just remember that the desire to out-outrageous everyone else is a trap. And once you trap yourself, nobody is going to come to your rescue.

Come to think of it, maybe everyone should lay off Twitter and Facebook for a while. Is there a reset button on this thing?

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Perry Michael Simon
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