Esther Fadlalla's List: Boston Bombing

• Upon examining this timeline, we might ask: How does social media transform the role professional reporters play in these kinds of news events?

   

  I would say that journalists have three capabilities that are vital to the news ecosystem: broadcasting, credibility, and storytelling.

   

  As citizen journalists inadvertently gather and (attempt to) distribute news, they lack the ability to broadcast to millions of people. In theory, their posts in social media can reach anyone who has Internet access. However, in practice, few can find them among all the noise and, even when found, few will have reason to trust them.

   

  Journalists track down these sources, vet their credibility, and, finally, assemble scattered pieces of information like a jigsaw puzzle into a meaningful story by filling in context. Others edit the story before broadcasting to a mass audience. This process definitely takes more time and resources than clicking the retweet button. Nevertheless, the public needs news organizations that have sufficient credibility to vouch for the accuracy of the eyewitness, the amplifiers, and the information itself. In the long run, news organizations to which the public turns for good judgment in adjudicating news will accrue goodwill and command attention.
• The pace of the news cycle is quickening, but the fundamental responsibility of a journalist to gather and disseminate reliable news hasn’t changed, nor will it be supplanted by savvy social media auteurs. The only way for any person to become a good reporter — regardless of whether she has a degree or works for a news organization — is to consistently produce news stories in a way that is useful and engaging to consumers of news.

• There is a reflexive reaction to pit emergent social media behavior against the traditional journalistic practices and norms. This defensive posture is counterproductive for both sides. Rather than pointing out flaws in order to uphold one model over the other, we should appreciate the interplay between them with a sense of symbiotic dependence that ultimately produces a more participatory, accurate and compelling news cycle.

   

  Social media is not going away. Even though the mainstream news industry might be experiencing creative destruction, demand for good storytelling from trustworthy news sources that enrich the public discourse isn’t going away either.

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• As the events surrounding the Boston Marathon bombings unfolded, social media were a great supplier of information for many — and a source of inaccurate information and frustration for some.

• A quarter of Americans got information about the devastating explosions and the hunt for the bombers on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, according to a report out Tuesday from the Pew Research Center. Young Americans in particular kept up-to-date through social media. Slightly more than half (56%) of an 18-to-29 year subgroup polled by Pew got bombing-related news through social networking sites.

  Those sites offer a convenient way to get news, especially since many users are constantly on them, says Michael Dimock, director of Pew's public opinion and polling project.

  They "are on Facebook, and the information is just flowing at them," he says.

• About one in 10 Pew respondents (12%) said social media sites offered an "easy" and "convenient" way to follow the Boston Marathon news. Nearly the same number (11%) said social networks provided "fast" and "up-to-date" information.

  Six percent said they used social media to keep up with friends and family who were in Boston. And 6% said they went to such sites to get different perspectives or because they provided "uncensored" information.

  While social media kept Americans informed, many people also turned to traditional sources to keep up on the events of last week.

  TV was the most widely used source of information about the bombings, according to Pew, used by 80% of Americans. Four in 10 kept up via radio reports, and three in 10 read newspapers.

  Nearly half got news online or on a mobile device.

  Overall, 63% of Americans said they followed the bombing-related updates very closely, making it one of the biggest news stories since 2001, Pew said. News events that drew more public interest were the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 economic downturn and the 2002 sniper shootings near Washington, D.C.

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• "I have been following my friend's Facebook [account] who is near the scene and she is updating everyone before it even gets to the news," Bozorg said by e-mail on Monday night.
• Indeed, as word spread of the blasts on Monday afternoon, social media seemed shaped by every aspect of the response, from runners giving their accounts of the race-turned-nightmare on Facebook, to authorities using Twitter to give instant updates, to The Boston Globe temporarily converting its homepage to a live blog that pulled in Tweets from Boston authorities, news outlets, and ordinary citizens.
• Terrorism experts said that social media helped people in Boston and beyond determine their next steps after hearing about the explosions.
• "Authorities have recognized that one the first places people go in events like this is to social media, to see what the crowd is saying about what to do next," said Bill Braniff, Executive Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism. "And today authorities went to Twitter and directed them to traditional media environments where authorities can present a clear calm picture of what to do next."
• "We know from crisis communication research that people typically search for corroborating information before they take a corrective action—their TV tells them there's a tornado brewing and they talk to relatives and neighbors. And now they look at Twitter."
• On Monday, information about the blasts spread more quickly on social media than through traditional news outlets. "I was first notified to the event by my daughter, who was on Twitter, and that was before it came out on CNN," said Anthony C. Roman, president of a security consulting firm in New York called Roman and Associates.

• That way of instantly spreading information far beyond the affected area also builds an online community around such events that can cross state and national borders. On Monday afternoon, #BostonMarathon quickly became a trending hashtag on Twitter.

  "If I'm here in Washington, D.C., and I'm on Twitter and can demonstrate my empathy, it helps create this idea of resolve or community solidarity with people who are there on the ground in a way that uni-dimensional media doesn't do," said Braniff. "Online, I can express outrage or sympathy."

  "I get a greater sense of unity—the we is a much bigger we," he said.
• "All the media provides a tremendous asset for the forensic evaluation of the explosion event," said Roman. "Authorities can start examining the pictures and tapes looking for individuals near the receptacles where the bombs were found and individuals not fitting the profile of the general spectator can be identified."
• Libby Hemphill, an Illinois Institute of Technology professor who studies social media, said she's noticed big differences in how people use social media to react to national disasters and human-made ones like the Boston bombings.

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• The article reports that professional journalists have a lot of questions to answer in the wake of the runaway Boston manhunt story, an aftermath of the April 15, 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts. It argues that journalists, Reddit users and people on Twitter all share the blame for rushed and inaccurate reporting. The article also discusses how to cultivate a culture of responsibility and suggests to accept public voices and to respect the breadth of delivery platforms.

• Abstract:

  The author reflects on the impact of Boston Marathon bombings on the U.S. broadcaster and cable outlets. The author notes that the incident provide these media outlets an opportunity to convey information and put national events on context. The author points out that many cameras are capturing footage, but could not broadcast it.
• The authors explore the social media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings in Massachusetts on April 15, 2013. A reporter describes how he got updates about a shooting on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) three days after the Boston bombings including monitoring the situation on a scanner and following developments on Twitter. A programmer used his Keepr social media monitoring software tool to capture Twitter posts about the incidents.

• ct:

  The author reflects on the impact of Boston Marathon bombings on the U.S. broadcaster and cable outlets. The author notes that the incident provide these media outlets an opportunity to convey information and put national events on context. The author points out that many cameras are capturing footage, but could not broadcast it.