As awful as the news coming out of Mumbai is, this latest tragic event is proof positive of the power of social media as immersive, human, immediate and infinitely more powerful than the heritage media in reporting current events.
In terms of immediacy and impact, as well as a true human face on the events, you need look no further than:
- Ultrabrown's live blog
- Vinu's photos on Flickr
- the rapid and frankly, near-overwhelming rate of conversation on Twitter which is happening at hundreds of updates per minute (as at 1300 Thursday 27 November) from both on the ground witnesses and people engrossed and analysing the events taking place
As my friend, Laurel Papworth notes:
Twitterers are all over it. People are videoing in the streets, taking photos, reporting back to their social networks. CNN coverage is simply not up to scratch, nor is Australian TV.
She's right.
And as you watch the social media landscape changing, you can see the heritage media become involved; turning to bloggers, photographers and witnesses reporting via other social tools including Twitter for more immediate coverage.
At a lower level, the same effect is taking place right now over the protests in Bangkok. The events there are less tense than Mumbai, so the pace and mood in social media is too. But the immediacy is no less.
As I and others have noted several times this year, the false dichotomy of a split between heritage and new media, between professional and citizen journalists, is no more. News is delivered to the consumer through whatever channel they find most relevant.
Increasingly, that channel is social media well ahead of the heritage media. The mid-afternoon news update is now irrelevant for immediacy, but perhaps not for deep contextual and situational analysis.
Tagged: conversation, media, social media
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