Q: Oh yeah, what site? CNN? Fox News? CBS? BBC?

Me: Nah, twitter…

Q: Twitter!?

Me: Yeah, I get most of my news from Twitter…

Okay, the irony here is; I was alerted by the attacks on twitter, however it happened to be by the “cnnbrk” twitter account. I never visit “cnn.com”, in fact the last time I was on that site was probably a year ago, however they do reach me on Twitter.

I just don’t have the time these days to go looking for news, it usually has to smack me upside the head. Sites like twitter, FaceBook and the like usually deliver, although I don’t use them for that purpose it’s just easier to keep up with family, friends, and technology through these sites. Of course, your next question might be, doesn’t that take up a lot of your time, checking in with those sites? The answer, of course, is no. I use a plugin for Pidgin called microblog-purple. Anyway, I digress…

More and more traditional media outlets/MSM struggle to cover current events, where social media and non-traditional coverage (a.k.a. blogs) flourish. This has to be taken with a grain of salt, however, as traditional media outlets typically have trained staff who check and verify facts as well as being upheld to a “standard”, whereas your social media and blog sites are not encumbered with such restrictions. Of course, even the most “respected” MSM outlets still publish fictitious, unverified, or poorly verified stories. Just look at the incidents with Jayson Blair and the New York Times or The CBS / Dan Rather George Bush Killian Documents Controversy.

It’s apparent that the MSM has caught on to the popularity of these sites, and you’ll see many of them now with Twitter as well as other social networking/microblog accounts. Some of them do a good job, others just don’t get it.

The risks of false/misleading information, either intentional or unintentional, are higher with these nontraditional sources, however if you’re one of those who really want instant gratification there’s no better source. Of course, you have to make sure you filter your input appropriately and just remember you can’t believe everything you read.

Links to various social reportings of the Mumbai attacks:
Vinukumar Ranganathan’s Bombay Blast Photoset
YouTube Mumbai Related Videos
Google Maps Plot of Attacks
Twitter #mumbai topic search

That being said, I’m a strong supporter of these non-traditional outlets and I believe they are the future.

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