Twitter during a plane crash – and implications for news
Dan Thornton | December 22, 2008The ability to instantly update was highlighted at the weekend, when Mike Wilson (@2drinksbehind) tweeted ‘Holy fucking shit I wasbjust in a plane crash!’
As he continued to post updates it emerged that it was the second crash he’s experienced, some of his experiences and possible causes (flagged up as such), and the fact that Continental Airlines wouldn’t serve drinks to the passengers once they were all safely away from the plane.
Silicon Valley Insider has screenshots of the whole thing, and there’s interesting commentary from Loic Le Meur, Jeff Jarvis, Mashable, Laurel Papworth, and The Blog Herald - and that’s just sources from my RSS feeds!
What’s interesting is how Loic, for example, points out spokespeople weren’t able to give out any details on live TV news, despite the fact we could all follow Tweets from somewhere going through the experience – and Pete Cashmore at Mashable points to the changing roles of news and newsrooms.
Apparently Mike has now been interviewed by Fox News. And apparently the chairman of Continental Airlines was on the replacement flight!
He’s also gained a lot of new followers as a result of the experience.
The implications for news reporters and news sources are becoming more and more important with every piece of breaking news on Twitter. Mike was able to send messages and images from the crash site – and could have also shot live video, all from his mobile, and all distributed instantly online.
For the visceral experience of an event, nothing can compete with that.
Where news sources still provide value is in finding the context of those individual experiences – for instance, when a spokesperson appeared to say they couldn’t say anything, where was a reporter asking about Mike’s messages?
We’ve already had
I wrote about how news sites have to change back in July. At that time, the LA Times was the first new source I’d seen to reference Twitter. The fact it’s got a Twitter account probably helps. During Mumbai, both the BBC and CNN were referencing it alongside Flickr.
And there has been plenty of reaction by readers of traditional news sources, as well as from the blogosphere. Many have questioned whether instant updates can be trusted, and whether they’re the sort of thing we expect from traditional news sources.
Part of this, I suspect, is from people who don’t use Twitter and therefore don’t have the human filter as a way of referencing trust. (Incidentally, David Armano’s diagram is one of the most succinct and effective ways of explaining Twitter I’ve seen!).
The Human Filter by David Armano (Logic+Emotion)
And the other part is that news sources are still slowly developing from their coccoon and haven’t fully worked out how to implement Twitter and the meaningful context and analysis on top of it in a readily apparent way.
The sooner websites integrate Twitter, Flickr, Qik, etc, the sooner we can see the value they layer on top.
You are correct in identifying the instant crowdsourcing capabilities that
Dave LaFontaine | December 22, 2008You are correct in identifying the instant crowdsourcing capabilities that are emerging as game-changers for the news business. Already, smart media companies (such as Schibsted, in Norway) are using the live video uploading functions of Nokia mobiles to compete with television in covering breaking news. The upside of moving in this direction is obvious: if web plays can start scraping off users from TV when it comes to breaking news, they can start building a more stable & predictable (read: advertiser-friendly) user base.
Not sure if I’d add Flickr to the list of “must-integrate” for news websites; I like Flickr, I’m a longtime user, but lately, the damn thing has been acting weird. Also, I am suspicious of their EULA; and for a content producer, the prospect of losing control over high-value content is not one to be taken lightly.
Just ask the music industry.
Great comment, and interesting website and resources! I can understand
Dan Thornton | December 22, 2008Great comment, and interesting website and resources!
I can understand your concerns about Flickr – and after all, Facebook is the largest repository or images, plus there are alternative image hosts – I think the reason I’d tend to go with Flickr for the moment is that it’s reached critical mass of users, and therefore is most likely to have the content a news site needs – the EULA is of more concern to content creators, after all – which is a different (albeit valid) concern to that of news sites!
And I can write a lot of posts (and frequently do on http://www.thewayoftheweb.net) about the music industry!
What's interesting to me is that Flickr has morphed from
Dave LaFontaine | December 24, 2008What’s interesting to me is that Flickr has morphed from being a kinda brag site/web-based backup into a social media site, where photographers of all skill levels get together to yammer about whatever killer image they’re into.
The subscription model seems to be holding solid as a monetization scheme, but the temptation to start cramming context-sensitive ads onto the pages has got to be just about overwhelming right now … and there’s such rich data points to play with, all given up by the users in their behavior, friends & the subject material of the photos they’ve posted & looked at. Here’s a game: how low does Yahoo’s stock have to go before they start using APT on Flickr?
I liked your post about the “1000 Predictions for 2009.” Much better than the predictions coming on the banking & real-estate blogs, where the current mood runs somewhere between “Head for the hills! The apocalypse is here!” and “Why bother running? Just stick your head in the oven…”
Cheery bunch over there. Yah, I know, with reason.
Anyway. Here’s mine: 2009 will be the year that social media saturation becomes social media burnout, and users will start flocking to tools that will allow them to organize & make sense of their online personae & friends.
A lot students pass the duty to expert resume writers
alex80 | September 17, 2009A lot students pass the duty to expert resume writers because they lack the skill to write a satisfactory resume that is the cause why people
need to resume, but such guys like creator don't do that. Thanks a lot for the knowledge. A kind of useful topic about twitter during a plane crash.
A lot students pass the duty to expert resume writers
alex80 | September 17, 2009A lot students pass the duty to expert resume writers because they lack the skill to write a satisfactory resume that is the cause why people
need to resume, but such guys like creator don't do that. Thanks a lot for the knowledge. A kind of useful topic about twitter during a plane crash.
[...] ways, and to make money. And as a news
140Char » Twitter turns 4 years old today! | March 21, 2010[...] ways, and to make money. And as a news and information source, first-hand accounts have included plane crashes, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and natural disasters including Haiti and numerous earthquakes [...]
The Human Filter by David Armano?!
instant payday loans | May 24, 2010The Human Filter by David Armano?!