The Revolution Will Be Twitterized

Established Mainstream Media vs Twitter News Snippets?

"We know from crisis communication research that people typically search for corroborating information before they take a corrective action—their TV tells them there's a tornado brewing and they talk to relatives and neighbors. And now they look at Twitter."  Bill Braniff, Executive Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism.

"I have been following my friend's Facebook who is near the scene and she is updating everyone before it even gets to the news".  Email sent during Boston Marathon.

The way we get our news is changing. Paper newspapers are going digital. Digital subscriptions have forced newsprint to come up with inventive ways to package news. Nothing seems to last for long since it is impossible to compete with the immediacy of digital information. Even reading the entire paper in digital format is time consuming. 

Twitter is becoming the news preference.

Marcus Messner, a communications professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the rash of mainstream media errors [of Boston Marathon bombing news coverage] stemmed at least in part from pressure to compete with fast-flowing social media. 

"If you look at Twitter, the news snippets on the events are a lot more advanced than what you're seeing on websites or even what you're seeing on the air," Messner said. "Twitter, especially, has put a lot more pressure on news organization to get it out fast."

Social media is changing everything, that is the need for quick, cinematic messages that may or may not be accurate, information that can be skimmed in a heartbeat, and forgotten in a nano second. The paradigm shift awaits for the entire work force to adapt to the digital revolution. Standing with your pitchfork in protest as the agrarians did during the industrial revolution will not matter.

The revolution IS digitalized and will continue.

The Boston Marathon Patriot Race

The Boston Marathon is the oldest marathon in the world that began in 1897 as a patriot race. For the 117th race, over 23 thousand  runners from 92 countries were suddenly paralyzed by two young Chechnyan men with homemade bombs and IEDs.  Major gunfights in the neighborhoods of Boston put Watertown on curfew for a day. The two young men were discovered through surveillance cameras and personal digital images.  The race and manhunt was relayed around the world through mediated images. The BBC reported from someone's apartment in Watertown hooked up on Skype. The primitive weapons of two sociopaths contrast strongly with the electronic and digital surveillance. This is definitely symbolic of living in a world of opposites.

Social Media and the Boston Bombings

From Palestine to Boston

The Boston bombings were real. They were also mediated. The entire world was on live feed as the manhunt began and there was enormous support everywhere. This event is symbolic of how we deal with a real event and how far reaching its grasp can become. As much as I am irritated by the power of two corporate social media empires that have enslaved young people and diminished personal contact, this has become part of the world we live in. In Sweden the major papers report EVERY DAY about who twittered what and almost EVERYONE in mass transport is on their EYEPHONE (iPhone) in a PC society. And here I am on Blogger because I want to connect my thoughts to this vortex of mediated images.....
I am a part of it all too.

© 2013 - Moira Sullivan - Publication Date: 04/20/13
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