Reporting Mumbai Attacks Through Social Media
“It’s total chaos over here. Army and Navy have been called in to assist police. The attackers are everywhere – in hotels, on the streets, in vans. They are firing indiscriminately.”
“there was just another blast at the Old Taj, the whole thing is surrounded by smoke as I type this. and 2 terrorists just been shot dead by the police.”
Using free social media tools, the South Asian Journalist’s Association (SAJA) has achieved a sense of immediacy and urgency in their reporting on the Mumbai terror attacks. The coverage includes forums (from which the two lead quotes are taken), online radio, resource pages, Twitter and Facebook pages, and a media critique. http://tinyurl.com/6ywvhg
It is hugely affecting. Is it journalism?
My take is that, while it is not traditionally sourced and vetted, it is valid as crisis journalism. SAJA has used social media technologies to surround the story and solicit multiple viewpoints, from bystanders tweeting in the city, to experts all over the world versed in Mumbai’s political and social intricacies. Users on the forums are posting links to mainstream media coverage as well as personal accounts. The story is messy, and we need to assemble it ourselves, but it is there for us to find – and in a disaster situation, a great volume of constantly-updated information can be more valuable than one well-edited piece that tries to encompass the event.
However, I thought this piece was also interesting. Based on the level of discourse on the SAJA Twitter feed, the author argues that Mumbai can teach us all some lessons in responsible tweeting. Essentially, she urges “citizen journalists” to act a little more like the pros. http://tinyurl.com/5p8cyk
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
Subscribe to Comments
Follow us on Twitter
Get email updates
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
Aaron Seeley
And on the “Rise of the Amateur” theme, I noticed several major American news outlets (foxnews.com, cnn.com, newyorktimes.com, if I recall correctly) practically begging people in the Mumbai area to submit stories, updates, photos, videos, etc.
Nov 28th, 2008
Brook Ellingwood
I was interested to read this CNN article about Twitter’s role in reporting from Mumbai, as it captured both positive and negative aspects of it:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/27/mumbai.twitter/
What made it _especially_ interesting to me was that I read the article because it was linked in a tweet from a well-known social media analyst (who may end up a research source in my paper), yet I was surprised to discover that this analyst’s description of the article was completely wrong.
In fact, the tweet actually reinforced the “Indian Government asks Twitter users to stop” meme that the CNN article calls into question I’m suspicious that the tweeter may have never read the article at all, but saw the headline and assumed it would tell the received wisdom version of Twitter’s role in Mumbai, which will be the version used in presentations at conferences for the next year. Yet in tweeting the CNN story wrong, the questions the story raises about sourcing and accuracy were effectively highlighted.
When traditional news organizations get the story wrong, we hold them accountable. When amateurs on the scene get the story wrong, what do we do? On what basis am I expected to do my own Shirkian filtering of messages that can be no more than140 characters long and could be coming from anyone anywhere in the world, with any possible motive for sending them? If it seemed plausible that the terrorists might be monitoring Twitter for information on the government’s response, then could it also be plausible that they were using Twitter to spread misinformation?
While I do love the rise of the amateur, I can’t help but fear the consequences of the fall of the professional.
Nov 29th, 2008
Brook Ellingwood
If anybody does find an actual sourced account of the terrorists using social media, I’d appreciate a link.
I found these paragraphs in a Australian news report (http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24726093-954,00.html):
“However amid the arsenal of military hardware, it was the use of humble mobile phones and internet technology that proved a key weapon – one which caught the anti-terrorist forces by surprise.
The use of BlackBerrys by the terrorists to monitor international reaction to the atrocities, and to check on the police response via the internet, provided further evidence of the highly organised and sophisticated nature of the attacks.”
But nowhere can I find a single attributed quote from anyone in a position to know that this is what the terrorists were doing with their Blackberries. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were, but at this point, it’s still only rumor slipping into news stories as fact from whaat I’ve been able to determine.
Nov 29th, 2008
Brook Ellingwood
Serial commenting, but I finally found an attribution in the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3534784/Mumbai-attacks-Are-they-British.html). No mention of Twitter or any social media though:
“One commando leader described how suspicions of a British link had been raised when investigators examined BlackBerry mobile phones seized from some of the captured Islamic extremists, which they had used to monitor the internet.
General Noble Thamburaj, head of India’s southern command, told the Telegraph: “There was a lot of content from the English media, not just in London but the Urdu and Arabic sites that are very strong in the north of England.”
Nov 29th, 2008
Reply to “Reporting Mumbai Attacks Through Social Media”