Raleigh| Social Media Breaks The Story

The crash of a Turkish plane this morning illustrated, once again, the increasing power of social media such as Twitter over traditional media outlets.  Just moments after the Turkish Airlines flight crashed at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport on Wednesday morning, Twitter broke the story through users’ status updates from the crash site.  Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to send and read other users’ status updates, known as “tweets.”

Twitter gained attention during the attacks in Mumbai, India, where people were able to post to their website from the hotel rooms.

Similarly, after the crash Wednesday morning, civilians flocked to the wreckage to take pictures and post to their Twitter page.  Once media outlets, such as CNN, saw these photos and updates they worked quickly to confirm the incident with Dutch officials and investigate further.

Eyewitnesses were able to post pictures and comments about the shock of seeing the plane dive out of the sky and seeing the passengers walk away from the wreckage.  In fact, the first image available to the public of the wrecked plane was snapped by an eyewitness driving past on the highway.

This incident proves that social networking sites are the future of media due to their speed in covering breaking news and gathering eyewitness accounts.  However, with this fast-paced coverage comes less accountability.  Relying on civilian reporters versus professionals does provide some concern about the reliability of reports, so readers are encouraged to use caution when reading these accounts.

Despite that, the unprecedented speed of breaking news through social media is undeniable and paints a clear picture of the future of media.