Social media challenges ‘old’ media in Boston bombings coverage

That social media plays a key role in emergency situations is evident. Lots of events have proven it’s efficiency and it’s multi-purpose qualities. However, this has definitely not been clear to everyone. Then a tragedy occurs in Boston and it becomes clearer and clearer that social media cannot be brushed aside.

There are already lots of great blog posts, Twitter discussions etc. about the role social media played (and is still playing) in the events related to the Boston bombings, so I won’t try myself to replicate those. A post that gives a good overview and is written by a public health professional is Leah Roman’s blog post on the blog Pop Health. She goes through some of the key themes of social media in the emergency response, ranging from Immediate Public Safety Concerns and Instructions over Investigation, Reconnecting people, to the functioning of social media as a Resource for Journalists, and it’s role in Mental Health & Support Resources.

Another good post about the social media in the boston bombing is on the blog iDisaster 2.0 that shares links to other great articles about the role social media played during the horrific aftermath and presents three observation on use of social networks, particularly Twitter, by the Boston Police Department. Also worth a read.

New media challenges old media

In the last couple of days, old media and new media are both reporting of how the later beat the first during the Boston events. Especially CNNs failure to keep up with social networks in being first with the news is being covered and discussed (among other places in this article in the NY Times and in Danish in this article in Politiken). The dynamic between the traditional media and new social media is interesting, and the relationship between the two will certainly continue to evolve. Without knowing the details of the discussion back in time when radio and later on TV came into being I’m sure that there were similar discussions on the then new media challenging the old ones. I look forward to seeing how it develops, and how emergency management manages to make use of what is still categorized as ‘new media’ and its relation with traditional media.