interdictor ([info]interdictor) wrote,
@ 2008-11-30 17:07:00
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Mumbai News Coverage

Twitter and Flickr replace "official" news outlets in Mumbai

Posted by Ryan W. McMaken at 12:23 AM

Alexander Wolfe of Information Week notes that the largest and most timely source of information coming out of Mumbai was from amateurs using social media like Twitter:

I'd add that Mumbai is likely to be viewed in hindsight as the first instance of the paradigmatic shift in crisis coverage: namely, journalists will henceforth no longer be the first to bring us information. Rather, they will be a conduit for the stream of images and video shot by a mix of amateurs and professionals on scene.

36 hours ago, a look at Twitter postings about Mumbai revealed some of the best on-the-ground information about what was going on. The news channels offered nothing but the usual endless chit-chat about President Bush and other irrelevant topics.

The Wired blog also has an interesting entry on the role of social media in the crises.



The first instance? Sure, if Hurricane Katrina and this blog don't count...

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[info]crisper
2008-11-30 04:50 pm UTC (link)
Well, to be fair, there were online bulletin boards with large NY membership in 2001 that gave a much better moment-to-moment assessment of what was happening in downtown Manhattan on 9/11 than any news either. If Katrina and this blog count, then so do much earlier events and other online communities.

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[info]dewline
2008-12-21 03:03 am UTC (link)
I seem to recall something along those lines in those days, myself.

That said, I think we're all in agreement that the news services in question are falling asleep at the web terminal in researching their history on such things.

Edited at 2008-12-21 03:04 am UTC

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]ignis
2008-11-30 05:29 pm UTC (link)
Hurricane what?

HA!

(Reply to this)


[info]msdna
2008-11-30 05:39 pm UTC (link)
Heh no kiddin. Tho I didn't get to see it till we headed over to I-55's office in Hammond on Sept 5th. We stayed here in Gulfport for the storm, my hubby was the cofounder of Datasync who was I-55's unix admin at the time. We were thrilled that the data center there in NOLA was kept up, and that whole thing was amazing.

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[info]flinkie
2008-11-30 06:52 pm UTC (link)
kremvax and RELCOM. Ten years before 9/11, the biggest event in the second half of the twentieth century was broadcast over the literally infant public Russian internet network, which was visible to the outside world - and was the primary source of information during the coup of 1991 that led to the end of the Soviet Union, when the KGB had blocked it out of the regular media.

The revolution was televised.

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[info]wandererrob
2008-12-01 03:34 am UTC (link)
I wouldn't have known half what I did about Katrina if not for your posts here. First instance indeed. :/

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[info]waterdawg
2008-12-01 11:14 am UTC (link)
ditto!

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[info]ladyskada
2008-12-01 01:27 pm UTC (link)
I can be facetious and say "But you had pictures!"
But, seriously, you were giving regularly updated real-time news and status reports of New Orleans during Katrina. I'd have to say that this blog can be truly considered "The First Instance".
Thank you again for doing what you've done.

(Reply to this)


[info]jdigital
2008-12-03 07:04 am UTC (link)
How easily they forget. I remember listening to the police radio channel via webcast, while following the vehicle movements on Google Maps.

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