The tragic Virginia Tech shootings created change in not only gun control, but also in the way that news came from an area unreachable by the media. Twitter, Flickr, and Wikipedia’s coverage of the event together broke ground for ways in which news could be delivered.
For the first ever, Twitter was a major factor in the distribution of information during a time when there were many different rumours and facts that did not originate from Virginia Tech students. In today’s world we see a huge increase the availability of information from Twitter that has, in some cases, been responsible for the collapse of authoritarian leaders.
What struck me most about this presentation was that Twitter had a major role in the media’s coverage of the event. Back in 2007 I would have not expected Twitter to have an impact like that. Now everything is “tweetable”. Even games on the iPhone like Temple Run have an option in which you can tweet your high score. Twitter of course now is a way in which Journalist, Activists, and Presidents can issue statements and share facts about what is happening in the world today.
Flickr, which previously had been a photographer’s virtual gallery, was during the Virginia Tech, used as a form of publishing news in the way of photos. Students on the Virginia Tech campus were uploading pictures from their cameras onto Flickr and were using the website as a visual source of news that was at times presented more information than some tweets available. Flickr, which had previously not been identified as a way to gather images coming in from, a conflict area was suddenly thirsted into the spotlight.
Wikipedia which today’s is the starting point for anybody needing information on any subject was a kind of virtual battlefront of information. Being that the website can be edited by the public there was a lot of editing to do in regards to opinion being mixed in with fact. Editors were responsible for keeping Wikipedia’s page void of any controversial opinions and published only facts about the event. The mass editing of the page was an interesting and incredible feat and is a testimony to Wikipedia’s principles.
Twitter, Flickr, and Wikipedia all influenced the flow information concerning the Virginia Tech shootings. Twitter and Flickr for the first time were used as sources of information rather than as online social hangouts. Wikipedia for the first time dealt with an outpour of information and an strive to only put out accurate unbiased facts. These sources were groundbreaking more for the future of Journalism.
-Matt Harris