140Char

[...] a time when I’ve been writing about Mumbai terrorist attacks, and the way that Twitter is providing a place for updates, connections between local residents, and calls for blood d… etc, I’m particularly pleased to have seen some news on how social networking and bloggers [...]

Here’s a roundup of citizen journalism/ social media coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks: http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/real-time-citizen-journalism-in-mumbai-terrorist-attacks/

[...] (6:30 am India time): Several technology blogs — including Techmeme, TechCrunch, 140 Chars and Amy Gahran — are writing posts on the role of Twitter in the reporting on the Mumbai [...]

india please wakwup

Dear All,

The terrorist attack on Mumbai is the reflection of failure of our Indian Society, Well it might hurt many of us but that is the “Bitter Truth”. India over the years has become the breeding ground for chaos, insensivity, Little respect for Law & Order.

India has a nation could have averted this attack with whatever minimum resources of intelligence we had, the insensivity of people to pass on the intelligence to the adminstration was the first failure to avoid the attack, second failue happend when Police during the first 45-90 minutes of terrorist raids gave the name of GANG WAR to the local Media. The biggest failure was Media mis-managment. Media never corroborated the source of evidence with reality and published the rumours as authentic news.

Now coming to the aftermath of attack, I noticed complete disaster in terms of Crisis Management, not just from the Government, but from the Hotel Group and majorily from the Media. I think if the Hotels had carried out routine Crisis Managment excersise during their earlier days than probably we could have saved many more lives if not all.

I was listening to Ratan Tata on CNN and he admitted that he was informed about imminent terror attacks to large big hotels. I guess if he soul searches than he will realise that he did little on the Intelligence advise. He said during the TV Interview that the his front office lobby was secured but the terrorist entered from the back-doors, the question is doesnt the the internal secuirty team in Taj Mahal hotel realise, the easy way to enter in a hotel is the back door. Well I am sure he will henceforth do a deep soul searching.

Now let me come to the most important part of Crisis Management. Mumbai had 3 sites where the terrorist attacked, I am suprised to learn that the area was not cordoned off for a radius of minimum 500 meters from the site. The Media team were within the site like cattles grazing grass with no sensivity to Law & order. I saw none of the Jornalist in Life Saving bullet proof jackets or helmets, I agree that Government agencies have beauracracy to tackle to avail the right security gears, But Corporate Hoonches in the Media are rich people and taken the Oath to set right the nation, set a definite bad example when they were relaying live coverages with out any respect to Law & order. Imagine if one of the sites had to blow up like JW Marriot in Pakistan, I would imagine 25% of Media Jornalist would have been in graves. Media are fore-runners when they have to question the government failures but do little to set right their house in Order.

When the attack did happen and Government did start to respond, I found a funny relation between Government and the Opposition party, In the first round of reports we were made to understand that the Opposition Leader L K Advani was requested by Our Prime Minister to accompany to Mumbai to show the solidarity amongst Government & Opposition. But the Opposition made themselves a laughing stock by not coming together, it shows our society is not United. Media never went behind the Government and the Opposition to answer their respective stand. You know why… Because Media in India works on the priniciple of equidistance from the ruling and opposition whereas they need to learn it is not that principle which will guide them to glory but ” No distance” Principle with these political parties.

I want to finally highlight the Celeberity Voice. I heard from people and the news agency that Mr. Bachan had to sleep with a pistol in his bed. I am surprised, I am Bangalore and did not sleep the whole night and Mr. Bachan did want to sleep, that is after knowing that Top Hotels are attacked which is usually the second home for all these celeberities. This is again our Society.

[...] the tragic events in Mumbai, there has been a lot of coverage of the role of Twitter in breaking news, with both advocates and [...]

[...] 26, 2008. <http://www.140char.com/2008/11/terrorist-attacks-in-mumbai-twitter-becomes-source-for-updates/> : full source [...]

[...] use of Twitter at times of global-reaching events and tragedies gets justified coverage, such as Mumbai, or U.S earthquakes. But it’s also worth noting the difference it can make it personal [...]

[...] even the BBC “blindly” – in Mishra’s words – quoting tweets on their news feed. CNN even suggested its viewers subscribe to Twitter streams that offered information about how to [...]

[...] Mumbai [...]

[...] CNN and BBC cite Twitter for Mumbai updates. [...]

[...] Twitter versus other sites which is of as much importance? Even when it’s breaking news, e.g. Mumbai, the ability to converse with both the source and others is built into Twitter to a far greater [...]