Mumbai: flash mob or social media in action?
When news of the ‘terrorist outrage’ broke yesterday evening several people mailed and messaged me with links to the coverage on Twitter. I was awestruck by the live feeds provided at #Mumbai and others (such as Twitter Grid). Having looked around elsewhere, my initial reaction was that the main old-school news agencies like Reuters, CNN and the BBC just weren’t providing the coverage, in contrast to the truly MASSIVE volume of tweeting going on. But as the evening continued my feelings changed about this, and I started to see and ugly side to Twitter, far from being a crowd-sourced version of the news it was actually an incoherent, rumour-fueled mob operating in a mad echo chamber of tweets, re-tweets and re-re-tweets. During the hour or so I followed on Twitter there were wildly differing estimates of the numbers killed and injured – ranging up to 1,000.
The facts are still unknown, but it was clear that ‘citizen media’ filled the vacuum provided by official news agencies (here again, there were rumours doing the rounds that because of Thanksgiving, most of the official media had gone on holiday – leaving caretaker managers in place. It was suggested at one stage that CNN was being run by the IT team…). So much noise. So little signal. Even if the truest signal was actually coming through Twitter it was so drowned in rumour, personal utterance, revenge and irrelvance as to be incomprehensible. In the flattened world of the Social Web there is clearly no filter on decency or taste. That made tweets like these possible:
One of the most unpleasant things to witness was the general ‘whoop whoop’ the more self-regarding voices of the social mediasphere were giving themselves. For some, it seemed like the social media coverage of the event became the story. The real event for quite a number of people last night was: Twitter 1, CNN 0 – which is utterly sad. Old media became the enemies for many, not the terrorists.
If traditional media agencies behaved like this (openly) they’d find themselves in trouble – but no-one regulates the mob and it answers to no-one.
Then this morning I see the word go round that the terrorists themselves might be using Twitter to find out what the security forces were up to. A hush went round:
Which, once again, brought out the worst in many:
There were no doubt many well-meaning people Twittering. Some on the ground were no doubt using the service to share their personal horror and to connect with the outside world must have been a comfort. But very few were on the ground. Most participants were far away. There needs to be some way of working out who in a situation like this has more authority than someone else. Of course, simply being there isn’t necessarily an indication of authority, but it does provide some context. I’d be interested to know if Twitter helped anyone last night to get hold of the right blood.
Many were simply expressing their horror – that’s fine. But do we want this to be ‘mixed up’ with news. Is it helpful or sensible to mash news up with personal reflections? How do we know what’s true any more when everyone’s voice has the same weight?
Last night scared me. We’re like kids playing with things that we still don’t understand. A human tragedy became “something to follow”.
I did find some interesting links were being posted – to journalist Vinu’s photostream, and I thought that NowPublic provided sensible, coherent coverage from a crowd-sourced base. Mainstream media appears to be using the social stuff to create its own coverage – CNN gave Twitter credit last night, and The NYTimes are actively asking for contributions.
The most touching eyewitness account I found came from a blog called ‘A Night Out In Mumbai’, and tells the story of frightened people helping each other in an hour of need. Definitely worth a read – although be careful as it contains more than 140 characters.
20 comments
The thing is, most of the tweet reports are just relaying news from the mainstream media! #mumbai was electronic rubbernecking, pure and simple. It’s pretty hilarious to read people blathering in a meta- mood about this being some sort of seminal event for social networking and twitter. This is no different than a news station that takes calls from eyewitnesses, something that was happening well before the Internet. The only difference is that we all have access to the call center –the social networks.
Citizen Media has certainly left Mainstream Media behind in terms of reporting news accurately and efficiently as well as collaborating in community support.
Kashif that is the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard. Show me some ORIGINAL reporting from the “Citizen Media”, meaning reporting that does not rely on the mainstream media. I’ve seen one Flickr page with pics from a citizen journalist and that’s about it. The rest is 3rd hand reports about friends of friends hearing gunfire, et cetera
It was amazing last night, the first real time reporting/commenting, and yes it was a mob. Kind of creepy when I asked if terrorists Tweet and got an answer, “yes we do.”
I actually couldn’t picture the logistics, I mean if you are armed, and holding someone in captivity, how do you have the extra fingers?
Hi Tim !
I have to echo your sentiments when you say “So much noise. So little signal”.
It was exactly that. Having said that, the power of Twitter as a social media platform can be over-emphasised only at our peril.
Sadly, the powerful medium was not used to potential. In fact, it is nearly 24 hours since it all started and….
The facts are still un-known.
Jayadeep Rath
New Delhi, India
Great article! I find it ironic that this article would not have been possible without Twitter.
Yes, Twitter is cluttered to the max. It needs better filtration systems. Users can use the search function to perform more specific searches, such as “mumbai live stream,” to avoid a million posts an hour and get more specific results. The site is a combination of social media, flash mob, shout outs, with a little substance hidden within the rest.
Jayadeep nailed it completely: after 24 hours, we still know barely anything about what is going on over there. And it is true that probably 99% of what happened on Twitter regarding the events in Mumbai happened at least 1,000 miles away — or more. So how do they know?
I followed CNN (7 feeds), NPR, The Washington Post (9 feeds), the Associated Press, and a couple other MSM Twitter feeds, and the news from them was slow — but what we received from them was fairly accurate, now wildly blown out of proportion.
I ignored the citizen traffic as soon as a local person who had once traveled through the train station in Mumbai (they were in there for all of 20 minutes) became an instant expert on the entire situation.
This was a great experiment in the game we used to play as kids — you know, the one called “Telephone”?
Sorry, that should have read, “not wildly blown out of proportion,” not “now.” Interesting typo, in this case…
What Twitter did was not to replace or outshine the MSM. In the early hours before CNN etc. caught hold of the story it was one of the few sources of information at all. Later, it provided a focal point for people’s horror and concern; it let people on the ground with nothing but mobile phones participate; and it relayed news from local TV channels to people around the world. Of course there was a mob rife with rumours, but anyone who reads blogs and tweets without healthy skepticism deserves to fall for the rumours.
Twitter was excellent (and still is) at getting news and details out to concerned families. It’s something the likes of CBS should be looking at more.
While I’m not condoning the “kill them all” comments that were made, is it any different from sharing that opinion over a beer with your mates in the real world? I think we need to realize that Twitter is still a conversation stream and people will say what they feel.
I had the same queasy feeling about the ‘twitter is full of stuff – cor’ tweets; not, perhaps out of place but it would have been better for those comments not to have used the Mumbai hash in them – or, better yet, to leave it for after the story is over.
Excellent commentary. I also find it sad that the use of Twitter to share information about this tragedy became more interesting to people than hearing about real events that will undoubtedly have repercussions.
Thanks for being a rational voice in this conversation.
This seems genuinely useful, if rather grim. This was found on Twitter. Problem is, it was one of over 25 tweets about the Mumbai attacks that I received that MINUTE. Filtering really useful stuff from melodrama and clutter is a real problem, no doubt about it. A ranking or relevance tool might help.
http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/
http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/
There is no need to decide whether the mainstream heritage media is either better or worse than the proliferation of social media tools (Twitter included) at reporting the news.
Heading into the trap of this kind of binary argument only impoverishes the debate around the ongoing evolution and transformation of the media.
Questions that strike me as being more exciting and pertinent:
+ how has Twitter contributed meaningfully to the sharing of critical information around the Mumbai events?
+ how are the mainstream heritage media looking to find a place for network generated content from channels such as Twitter within their news provision?
+ how are we equipping future generations with the critical tools (education, emotional intellect, cultural understanding and empathy) to navigate an increasingly crowded and noisy mediated environment?
As commenter ‘Danny Brown’ points out, it’s not Twitter making us intolerant or insensitive. There is no doubt that the technologies we employ can transform our behaviour, a very McLuhnian argument (Marshall McLuhan).
But technology is generally the least interesting part of the media. It’s the people using the technology and the ways they are employing those tools that is really fascinating.
Or as the great cultural critic Raymond Williams once pointed out, people adapt technology, they don’t simply adopt it.
What does this insight mean for us today? Let’s focus our arguments around specific instances of technological use in context. The learnings are likely to be more profound.
Scott,
You bring up several interesting points, but I think you missed the point here: Twitter failed in bringing accurate, time-sensitive news to the public that needed it. The mob mentality that had no use for vetting the accuracy of any type of information just took off and ran with anything they could get, trying to be “the source.”
Being a trained journalist, I know the importance of vetting the information about an event while it is still happening. I’ve been there, and I can tell you that filtering one person saying 1,000 people are dead versus someone else saying 100 people are dead is an enormously different thing! You have to know where they are coming from!
Accuracy in information is essential, else we are left with mob mentality — which could prove to be fatal to many innocent people; we need to let journalists do their jobs and THEN we can tweet this stuff… the only real info we had FROM TWITTER was from the MSM — in this instance.
Sources need to be vetted — period. Else, like in the courts, it’s just hearsay.
…and should be treated as such.
Using our inhouse forecasting app, we witnessed a more focused reality of the beginnings of this Event. hth
#Mumbai ~ 1st Tweets Timeline & Chart… http://tweetip.us/lkurv
http://tweetip.us/lkurv
@S. Weynard Miller: Twitter is not about CJ. Its just another Social Media tool where people converse about their joy, sorrow, frustration and anger. And, just like regular conversations, they give quotes and references to MSM etc.
There are number of blogs that had first hand account of Mumbai incident, as well as listed contact numbers and other helpful tips. I don’t know if you have seen them or not.
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