On Monday, at Virginia Tech University, citizen journalism came of age. By the time America's mainstream media - delayed by an old-fashioned combination of bad weather and surprise - arrived at the edges of the campus, scores of amateur reporters were already using the very modern tools of Web2.0 to communicate the story from the inside.
Blog entries gave eyewitness accounts, the most up-to-date information and messages of reassurance. A fragment of film footage (right) shot by student Jamal Albarghouti using a mobile phone was already well on its way to becoming the event's iconic media memory.
Twitter - the fastest global conversation ever - finally found a purpose beyond the hyper-trivial, and photographs from dorm windows were being pooled on the |
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linton chiswick explains how Virginia Tech’s student bloggers scooped the mainstream media |
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photo-sharing website, Flickr. Before the police were even sure the area was safe, the first draft of history - a Wikipedia entry, complete with quasi-academic notes and references - had been written and published.
Not too long ago, news blogs were under attack for leaching from - even plagiarising - traditional media. Yesterday, with few effective alternatives, the BBC's News 24 turned to students' LiveJournal pages for information, and journalists from all over the world, desperate for information, harassed Virginia Tech's student bloggers. Typically, the reporter would offer brief condolences before urging the student to call the newsdesk.
Some bloggers became, understandably, given the bloody and frightening circumstances, very angry, and battle lines were drawn between old and new media. CNN, of all the news networks, did the  |
