By Jonathan Tamayo
Missing Call Letters
Picture by jkrums
Today I experienced first hand the power of Twitter and its role in the future of news. I created an account last summer but only recently became an active user.
During the U.S. Airways crash in the Hudson River today, the tweets about the accident were updated by the second. Before CNN or Fox news put out any information, I found out emergency numbers, saw pictures, received links to live feeds, and was constantly updated about what was going on.
The first picture was taken with an iphone by Janis Krums. He was on a ferry that was picking up passengers and posted a twitpic on Twitter which was retweeted by pretty much everyone…34 minutes later he was interviewed by MSNBC.
I’ve heard stories of how people effectively use Twitter to let their followers know if a road is blocked or if there’s a traffic jam. There was also the guy on the plane that crashed in Denver a couple of weeks ago that used Twitter to give live updates and keep his family informed since all the phone lines were jammed. Again this was all done before news networks could even get on site.
Just goes to show how new media and technology is changing the scope of news. Seems like citizen and freelance journalist may be the future.
