Speed of news
November 27th 2008 08:56
Just read about the Mumbai terrorism this afternoon. The Deccan Mujahideen have claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to Indian news reports. They are demanding equal rights for Muslims in India, and that all Mujahideen prisoners in India be released.
One of the most amazing things to come out of the situation already is the series of photos Vinukumar Ranganathan managed to put on Flickr.com within a very short time after the shootings and rioting.
On top of this are a bundle of You Tube videos. One of these is from an Aljazeera broadcast, which in two and a half minutes gives a good overview of the situation.
Hundreds of Twitter messages have appeared, documenting the details of the act in grisly detail. These messages appeared long before there was anything on television. And in fact, the Internet has provided information about the attacks in enormous detail, far beyond anything television can manage.
For example, the Ultra Brown blog is adding posts continually about the terrorism. These are from people living close by to where the main events have taken place. Already there’s an entry on Wikipedia, and on another (less well-known to me) encyclopaedia site, Mahalo.
The ‘citizen media aggregator’ sites, NowPublic and GroundReport are both full of information. I’ve never come across these sites before, so it’s interesting to discover them – though it would have been preferable in less horrific circumstances. Plainly they’re widely used; the information on them is extensive.
One of the best things about all this non-professional coverage is that it’s been able to keep people up to date when the professional media has struggled to do so, because so many sites have been attacked almost simultaneously.
Without being facetious, it’s times like these that make you think seriously about getting a health insurance quote.
One of the most amazing things to come out of the situation already is the series of photos Vinukumar Ranganathan managed to put on Flickr.com within a very short time after the shootings and rioting.
On top of this are a bundle of You Tube videos. One of these is from an Aljazeera broadcast, which in two and a half minutes gives a good overview of the situation.
Hundreds of Twitter messages have appeared, documenting the details of the act in grisly detail. These messages appeared long before there was anything on television. And in fact, the Internet has provided information about the attacks in enormous detail, far beyond anything television can manage.
For example, the Ultra Brown blog is adding posts continually about the terrorism. These are from people living close by to where the main events have taken place. Already there’s an entry on Wikipedia, and on another (less well-known to me) encyclopaedia site, Mahalo.
The ‘citizen media aggregator’ sites, NowPublic and GroundReport are both full of information. I’ve never come across these sites before, so it’s interesting to discover them – though it would have been preferable in less horrific circumstances. Plainly they’re widely used; the information on them is extensive.
One of the best things about all this non-professional coverage is that it’s been able to keep people up to date when the professional media has struggled to do so, because so many sites have been attacked almost simultaneously.
Without being facetious, it’s times like these that make you think seriously about getting a health insurance quote.
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