Blogging Horror

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27984057/

Most of us have likely heard about and viewed scenes of the carnage brought about by the terror attacks in Mumbai, India. Some of us may have learned of the attacks or received updates regarding the situation via online networks such as Twitter and Flickr, providing yet another example of how new online networking tools can be used.

The article I have posted discusses how people who were on the ground in Mumbai used micro-blogging site Twitter to ask what happened minutes after the first stage of the attack was underway. Another person on the ground took photos of the carnage and posted them on Flickr to pictorially illustrate what was occurring. Others depended on the sites to remain aware of the status of family members or friends who were in Mumbai when the attacks occurred. All of this occurred in fractions of time and significantly faster than traditional news sites. It begs the question: does the ability for such instant transmittal of information begin to erode the need for traditional news media? In 10 years, will people have a need to still turn on Nightly News at 6:30, or will they instead turn to their Twitter account every few minutes to receive updates on breaking news? Could the news media establish Twitter networks across the world, instead of journalists, to report live updates as they occur with simple blog posts? Many questions, but how these tools were used as these attacks were occurring certainly speaks volumes about where these tools could perhaps be taken.

Another couple of interesting nuggets of information. According to the news article, a Wikipedia article is already created for the attacks and has been updated "thousands of times." Also, a Google map of the attacks was created hours after they began, and has already been viewed over 375,000 times. Pretty remarkable when you consider how recently these attacks occurred and the constantly changing nature of the situation.