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.
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I think you’re exaggerating. Vinu is really the only one to have covered the story well, simply by being there with a camera. Ultrabrown’s live blog lasts about 4.30 hours and consists of quoted media reports. Hardly eyewitness. As a compilation of events, it’s quite good but wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for “heritage” media. Twitter is mainly reaction and chatter. When something newsy is reported, it is invariably another lift from the mainstream media.
@kalisana I’ll beg to differ.
The source IP for your message indicates you’re embedded in the mainstream media, which suggests you might have a firmly established viewpoint, but just think a little wider. There have been several events that have been broken first in social media this year (and previously). A few examples:
* Bangkok demonstrations
* California fires (San Diego and LA)
* Bhutto assassination
* Sichuan earthquake
These are well-documented cases.
There is also good evidence for the decreasing relevance of mainstream media as a primary source for information and news consumption.
The heritage media is in the invidious position of needing to redefine itself to maintain relevance.
Gaurav Mishra has a great compilation of social media coverage directly from Indian bloggers:
http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/real-time-citizen-journalism-in-mumbai-terrorist-attacks/
Also, Dina Mehta (dinamehta.com) has made a personal offer via Twitter to help track down people you are worried about in Mumbai. How often does that happen with MSM?
Heritage media folk who don’t ‘live’ web 3.0 (real time, immersive social web) do not actually see the detail and cannot understand its implication…
it is up to us trib to bring out that detail sometimes, vs fluffy rhetoric or plagarism. For example I have been following several twitterers actually from mumbai, on the streets, in homes next to hotels, around the city etc: Here is a sample of one, shivmeet…
- headlines today (to rescued guy): ‘were you concerned for your life at any time?’ ‘i was all the time concerned for my life’ Duh!
- Light on on one room in Oberoi, visible from ground, situation there unclear
- @chhavi Any idea what the big blast near your house was and where exactly?
- Another big blast probably near worli/ mahalaxmi area!
- Big blast across the water from the Oberoi, Worli/ Prabhadevi area
- reporterss swarming around messing with cartridges etc at VT. same as after the train baslts, you could go to the yard and muck around, that
- stay at home, people! theose cars with gun toting boys in them ae stull at large
- ‘It’s just good to talk to you’: bruce, british tourisy hanging out his 5th floor window at the taj. can hear gunfire.
- marriot hotel surrounded by cops
- idiot morning walkers on marine drive: we’re used to blasts
- can see people being shepherded out of Taj lobby, ambulances being called
- ‘we love this country, it is ours, but our borthers are being killed’shahtu;lla to csomeone on megaphone
- More explosions, huge du;ll thud, while guests were being brought out’ at Taj: times now
This type of live commentary (and with tweetgrid I was tracking hundreds) combined with local images on the ground and a range of updating blogs/wikis produce the dynamic effect and deeper understanding. Radio has historically created a similar effect, vox pops from eye-witnesses – sadly TV news tends to have too many inbuilt artificial structures, causing delay and as many inaccuracies. As regards the indepth, post event coverage too I prefer to read blogs of those affected and those with a deeper understanding than traditional broadcast TV experts given 3 minutes to explain what happened…I could go on but…people living the experience in Mumbai to connect with…
The Indian government have asked @mumbaiupdates and others to stop updating live coverage in case it jeopardises the operation to get the three remaining terrorists. (They are also pulling the live TV feeds, for the record).
For those who are interested in RESEARCH rather than assuming that all UGC is loser generated content, why not track http://search.twitter.com/search?q=near%3AMumbai – twitters in Mumbai. Might learn something
Stephen, I won’t dispute the faults and weaknesses of the MSM. As you aware, I’m well placed to make such a criticism. Nor will I dispute the ability of individuals to break stories. In the old days, these people used to ring their local newsroom.
I won’t, however, resile from my opinion that comment and quoting from selected news outlets in any way constitutes “news”.
If what you assert about the relevancy of the MSM as a primary source of information & news is true, why are so many people referring to it in Twitter? Everytime I look at Tweet Grid, most people seem to have seen or read something from the MSM.
I won’t disagree with the MSM’s need to lift its game but I think it’s a bit too soon that it will be replaced any time by citizen journalists.
What you have correctly pointed out is the fact that the MSM is no longer the only player in town.
@kalisana in which case, I think we pretty much agree in broad terms.
Stephen how can you agree? o.O
MSM has never ‘made’ news. They report it. It’s always been a distribution medium. (media being plural of medium or channel, not content). Twitterers report or retweet or distribute or filter news too. Bloggers read a Mumbai girl driving past a hotel, or watch a Channel Ten broadcast talking to some starlet in a hotel – both cases the ‘news’ is created by the women, not by the medium. Twitter adds a back channel.
Most of the reporting on coverage that I saw was how bad it was. American media calling it an “anti American” attack when it clearly felled more local people than Americans. CNN India did a good job and Sky had a Twitter feed as a ticker tape but Australian TV was apalling – I sat through 6 hours of channel flicking free to air to report THAT fact.
… and these days, we blog other bloggers articles, not MSM
@Stephen: Here’s a roundup of social media coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks: http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/real-time-citizen-journalism-in-mumbai-terrorist-attacks/
@Laurel agree in as much as:
- MSM has faults and weaknesses (in spades)
- individuals can and do break stories
- quoting other sources isn’t news in and of itself
- MSM is no longer the only player (and decreasing in relevance)
As opposed to agreeing that MSM makes news. MSM tries to manufacture news, and that’s *never* been news.
Laurel, Call me old fashioned but I really don’t want my news outlet, be it MSM or social, to “make” the news. I expect it to report and to do so in a timely and accurate manner. I’m not too fussed about bias as long as it’s obvious and doesn’t compromise accuracy.
Stephen, I know MSM media beat the news up or down (I would blame individual editors for that) but manufacture news? I’ve been in the game for than 20 years and I can’t recollect an example (apart from the odd April Fools yarn). Sure, MSM gets things wrong from time to time but make things up? The only thing it makes up is the package and then it squeezes the news to fit.
PS: I’m not really old-fashioned as I began publishing news online in 1994. These days they would be called blogs; back then I had to hard-code the mongrels.
PPS: I was the online editor at my MSM organisation for five harrowing years. I allowed myself to be removed from the position because I was sick of dealing with idiots who just didn’t get “it”.
PPPS: I really hoped Twitter would bring me more up-to-date information today (I have a soft spot for Mumbai’s Colaba district and the Leopold in particualr) but all I really found was a lot of noise and not much substance.
@kalisana oops a misunderstanding here. MSM don’t create content, they report it. So if I’m interviewed, my story is placed up as MSM content. I then go home and tell my social network the same, or more, than made it on the 3 mins of evening news.
By the way, if you really didn’t learn anything more on Twitter than you did from Australian TV or newspapers (hard to believe) than I suggest you broaden your Twitter network. Try keeping an eye on the guys that are compiling this Google Docs list on Dead/hospital of #mumbai victims http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p_esnE-3Z3p-HehX1YOZIaw and also http://arunshanbhag.com/2008/11/27/mumbai-blasts-day-2/ @arunshanbhag.
I saw at least three journos asking around on Twitter for Mumbai contacts. I mean, isn’t MSM another distribution outlet for our news? Plonking a microphone/telephone/skype in front of a twitterer is not creating content, it’s reporting it. Retweeting it away from Twitter no?
Finally, and I dont’ expect agreement here, but when did we change and decide that social commentary was not news? Why can the evening news on Ten repeat what we saw on CNN during the day, and that’s ok. But if Twitterers pass a link to CNN India around, it’s just commentary and piggybacking off of “serious” media?
My 2 cents worth, and now I’ve spent it
Stephen, your point can be seen in an event that happened here in the states about a week ago.
US Attorney General Mukasey collapsed delivering a speech at a dinner. It was all over the twitterverse (including the excellent @breakingnewson) for about an hour before the traditional media picked up on it. In fact, it was on twitter before the EMTs arrived.
The point of origin was @bamber, in attendance at the dinner, twittering. It didn’t take long for for it to spread after that.
As for Mumbai, it’s a lot easier to get up-to-date news via twitter than via the traditional media. Yes, in some cases it isn’t as accurate as hours old news that has been verified is, however, the signal to noise ratio is still pretty decent, I think due in part to the distributed nature of citizen journalism.
Daniel, thanks for your input. While I’m already sold on the validity of the social as a newsbreaking medium, I think the weight of commentary here validates my point.
Now, if only Jay Rosen and Clay Shirky would comment here
Another point to reflect on is that mainstream media is very selective on what it reports. Generally television, radio and print are linear channels who can only fill a minute, or column inch, with one news story, or one part of the story, using limited resources to do it.
This means that they must select from multiple sources exactly what they choose to report – choosing one story from a much broader and richer canvas.
Online media is not linear and doesn’t have the same channel or resource limits.
Therefore, by it’s nature, online is able to paint a richer and deeper picture of events. It can capture and retain an almost 360 degree view of news, compared to the limited window provided by MSM.
Part of the online channel’s reporting is the MSM reporting. In effect, MSM becomes simply one of the sources for online citizen-driven media, with online providing a bigger picture of events.
The last paradigm is becoming just one facet of the new paradigm, as has occurred time and time again in the past.