Wednesday, May 4, 2011

News no longer breaks....it tweets













As we all know, Osama Bin Laden has been shot and killed this previous Sunday. As I did my constant daily rounds of checking my social media networks on Sunday, I realized that I found out about this breaking news once again through Twitter and Facebook just like I have been finding out heading news for the past two years. I never watch the news anymore and find out just about everything online. Twitter has become the new CNN as the prime source for news as we find out now that Sohaib Athar's (@ReallyVirtual) tweet on Sunday morning was the first online indication that the U.S. was raiding Osama's compound when he tweeted about seeing helicopters drop off Navy Seals. Keith Urban (@KeithUrban) tweeted the first credible report that the U.S. had killed Osama prior to the news networks. Even before the president knew about what was happening back in the states, individuals following these two guys already had an idea what was going on. Within 12 hours, there was over 2.2 million tweets about Osama Bin Laden's death. This changes everything and the way news breaks out and journalism develops. As social media becomes our on stop for news, the professionalism and quality of journalism and news content could be different. We are all embracing letting Facebook and Twitter be our outlets for news, however we shouldn't completely let go of being misinformed since credibility isn't easily established online compared to on television. It's definitely something to think about as we rethink who we are really following on twitter or who we have as friends on Facebook. -Victor

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