The social networking site has become a hang-out for those wanting to name and shame child abusers and superinjunctors

Dominic Mohan, the Sun's editor, was one of several people who told the Leveson inquiry that he wanted to see "a level playing field" between the internet and the mainstream media. He was talking, of course, about Ryan Giggs, although recent events give the lie to the notion that social media represents an attractive destination for ethical standards. Instead, Twitter seems to have become as much a hang-out for those wanting to name and shame child abusers and superinjunctors, out rape victims, or simply make racist taunts. And in so doing, this digital public space is fundamentally changing the nature of Britain – a locus of an intense contest between progress and ignorance, to steal the once quaintly Victorian phrase used weekly on the Economist's contents page, and which appears particularly appropriate now.

If cats are hard-wired to see mouse-like movement scampering across the floor, we are similarly unable to ignore incoming information. Mass media may consider itself above the blogosphere, but it is in fact hopelessly influenced by it. If people are tweeting about it over there, it must be reported on – how many tweets are cited in the media daily now? – or knowingly acknowledged. That was the fun of the superinjunction story, where knowing journalists could share a joke with their readers, asking about this footballer or that actor, because the digitally savvy readers were already in the know.

Unfortunately this is where Newsnight became undone too: because while it might not have chosen to name the innocent Lord McAlpine, enough people who knew the background to the wretched north Wales care home abuse scandal were aware that the peer's name had been in the air a decade ago. What Newsnight thought it might have been able to keep secret was in fact a piece of information that anybody interested could divine within a few minutes.

And what David Cameron thought was a way of controlling the child abuse story – by launching an immediate public inquiry into the renewed north Wales care home allegations – only served to fuel the chatter. It may, then, have been a bit rich for the prime minister to look so cross at Phillip Schofield when he handed him a list of names of Conservatives that the This Morning presenter had found after searching for "three minutes" on (where else) "the internet". By launching a review into the north Wales Waterhouse inquiry of a decade ago, the PM served to legitimise the online speculation which, in turn, licenses continuing media interest. After watching the BBC's catastrophically slow response to the Savile crisis, government at the speed of Google Trends seemed to be the only viable option.

There is little point complaining about the reality of our digitally-driven times, but the division between mainstream and social media is worth preserving. Accuracy is a priceless commodity and in a world where news is no longer tomorrow's chip paper mistakes will linger long in the database. Newsnight is finding that out the hard way; one can only wonder how long the Paxmans and Warks will feel happy with an association with a programme that links somebody to paedophilia and is wrong.

But if the record of Newsnight's errors will endure, the mood will dissipate. The intensity of criticism will be replaced by the next rumour or opinion we can all retweet. No doubt, at some point, it will affect somebody's prospects for a fair trial. Or there will be some other scandal that we cannot quite imagine; the like of which reinforces the need for standards – Leveson or no Leveson.

As somebody else observed: "The only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is integrity." Google him if you want.

Dan Sabbagh

guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/11/twitter-click-destroy-world

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