News of the (social media) world

Once upon a time, to find out the latest news in our local community or in the world, we would read the morning paper or listen to hourly updates on the radio or watch the six o’clock news on television. But in today’s modern society, individuals are so information hungry that they want to be the first to know about news as it breaks. However, newspapers, television, radio and email updates aren’t enough to satisfy this. Even digital newspapers are struggling to provide real time and up to date news. More and more, we are starting to see that individuals and organisations are the ones breaking news stories using social media. 

Today, an AFL player tragically died while holidaying in Las Vegas. I first heard of the news while eating lunch and watching television. The news reporter stated that as the family of the player had not yet been notified of the death, that his name and club would not be announced. I logged onto Twitter and noticed that several AFL entities that I follow had also broken this news story. I watched my Twitter news feed as details of the story were unfolding. At first, AFL entities, individuals and organisations tweeted about the news and the players name was kept unidentified. Then the social media platform erupted as many Twitter users wanted to know more about this story. Within minutes, the football club which the player played for was leaked on Twitter. After another minute or two, sources then leaked the player's actual name. Although the player's name and the story at hand had not yet been confirmed by the AFL or the player's club, the story was retweeted by hundreds of Twitter users and an outpour of tribute messages began flowing to the point where four words began trending on Twitter in relation to this story. Even a memorial Facebook page was created before the information was confirmed.

What was sickening about this situation, was that that the family and close friends of the AFL player had not yet been fully notified of the death. Yet the news was trending on Twitter!? Sadly most of the player’s family, friends, team mates, ex-colleagues and the AFL community would have learnt of his death through social media.

Even at 5pm today, digital news websites such as The Herald Sun and The Age chose not to mention the players name, as family members were still be notified at that point.

The way news is broken in society has dramatically changed. Anyone can be a journalist these days.

I know that there are situations where it is handy to use social media to seek information. Such as, if individuals are walking to a train station and they read on social media that a particular train line is down, commuters can seek an alternate route to work.

A situation that I found interesting was when the 5.3 magnitude tremor that rocked Victoria in June 2012 prompted thousands of individuals to tweet and post about this on social media. People on the other side of the world knew that an earthquake had occurred in Melbourne via social media before any news organisations on television, radio or print could get an article together. The news articles that were finally documented for this story (almost 12 hours later!) were a collaboration of expert opinion and information and pictures sought from Twitter and Facebook.

News travels fast. It always has. There is nothing that can stop news stories breaking on social media. Individuals and organisations just need to put themselves in the shoes of the family and friends that today found themselves learning about the death of a loved one via social media. Although I know this probably won’t happen, I would hope that in future as a sign of respect, serious information should not be leaked online for the sake of breaking news.