BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) You’ll know social media and the internet are the primary source for people to get info when that’s where they turn first in an emergency.
Mike Hudson over at ThreeMinds wrote an excellent article Titled “Citizen Journalism Kicked Big Media Around” discussing how people reacted to the recent earthquake in Los Angeles. Which got me to thinking, I have a question for you-
If an emergency happened to your city right now where would turn to on the web for news and information about it?
Examining this question can lead us to some very interesting insights.
- Who do you trust to tell you vitally important news?
- How do you contact your friends and loved ones to check on them?
- Where do you FIRST turn for the news about your local area?
If you first turn to the web, instant messaging, twitter, and a local newspaper website- then I would guess you are a Gen-Xer, and an early adopter, and in the minority.
If you first turn to radio or TV, and telephone, then I would guess you are solidly in the mainstream. And I’m not alone in thinking that.
I myself, would turn on the TV or Radio nearest me, use the phone (as do so many people) for loved ones and then jump on Twitter to find out what’s happening. From Twitter I would learn some good websites that have up to date news, video and images. For me, social networks are not quite there yet to replace the tried and true big media news for my most trusted source when the chips are down.
I believe that in time social networks will replace main stream media as the place for breaking news about local events. Mike notes in his article that the LA Times website crashed because so many rushed there following the quake. Other sites note that phones were constantly busy.
In my opinion until a significant portion (>1/3) of the online population turn to social networking as a first and primary source for news, it hasn’t yet arrived. When people begin to first turn to IM, texting, and Twitter like applications, we will know that social media are finally entering the mainstream.
Where do you turn when the chips are down? Tell me in the comments below…
Tanks for reading,
Chris
7 responses so far ↓
1 Rob Blatt // Aug 5, 2008 at 9:11 am
My answer is unfair because I work at a newspaper, but I’ve found most major breaking news thanks to TwitScoop on TweetDeck, which refreshes every minute and produces a word cloud with the most popular words being used on Twitter the most prominent. I heard about all the baseball trades that way and the LA earth quake, Morgan Freeman’s car accident and it keeps me up to date on what websites are currently down.
2 Jeff // Aug 5, 2008 at 9:13 am
I think the confusion between what news organizations can and can’t do is part of this discussion.
The new media tools we’re all using are so much more efficient than the time-delayed and edited vehicles that traditional media is using…still.
I’ve heard from two different people in the last two days that the Boston Globe and Boston.com are TOTALLY separate and neither crew talks to each other.
I also heard from Steve Garfield about how the Internet arm of ABC didn’t fully leverage a great interview he did with his mother.
Until the people who are making the news and editorial decisions start to use and understand the tools that have popped up in the last three years, we’re going to see a larger divide.
*One caveat is that there is NO substitute for editorial direction and journalism training. If a ‘citizen journalist’ is just reporting (meaning showing and giving just facts on a topic or event), then they are as powerful and should be as respected as any reporter.
BUT when CJs jump into offering commentary about an event, the content consumers should be careful and understand that the person reporting may not be governed by the journalism ethics and editorial direction that most traditional journalists are trained in.
Jeff
http://www.jeffcutler.com
3 Susanna // Aug 5, 2008 at 9:19 am
Good question, and one I really had to think hard about. Our town is small and doesn’t have a local TV station. It also only has 1 local newsblog that I know of, which hasn’t updated in weeks.
So in an emergency, I’d probably turn to our local paper’s web site. If it were a really major emergency, I might also look at the SCEMD web site.
4 Chris Kieff // Aug 5, 2008 at 9:36 am
Rob,
OK, I’ll grant you a pass because you work at a paper. But I’ll bet you turn to TV or Radio when local stuff is happening, you just can’t admit it, LOL. I’ll have to look at TwitScope again.
Thanks,
Chris
5 Chris Kieff // Aug 5, 2008 at 9:51 am
Jeff,
Old Media Dudes missing the connection potential for the online side was the subject of my post here: http://www.1goodreason.com/blog/2008/06/02/cbs-news-writes-about-their-youtube-video-story/
I think we will have reached the turning point when we just naturally turn to Social Media rather than TV, or Radio. But we aren’t there yet.
As for CJ, I lived in San Jose for the Loma Prieta Quake in 1989, and here in NYC for 9/11. TV & Radio and Print in both cases were filled with CJ reports. Much of which was wild speculation and rumors with no basis in fact. I don’t see the forces that could change or improve this significantly in the future.
Chris
6 Chris Kieff // Aug 5, 2008 at 10:28 am
Susanna,
Yes it’s an interesting question. Where do you look for stuff about the local area on line? Living in the metro NYC area, the issue here is will it be big enough to get coverage in the area news?
Thanks,
Chris
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