Twitter Provides More Than Gossip

Wildfires broke out all around San Diego in October 2007, leaving residents in panic and fear. Where did they turn for their news? Not the television, not the radio, but instead they turned to the more unconventional social networking website, Twitter.
Local and national media outlets flooded the scenes of the wildfires, jamming the airwaves and providing little detail as to what sort of resources were available to citizens. This is when San Diego natives Nate Ritter and Dan Tentler stepped in with a unique solution. The two began posting rapid-fire updates on Twitter, after conducting interviews from friends as well as observing first-hand reports. Twitter provided the people of California real insight into just exactly what sort of danger they were really in.
Twitter, known by most as a website that allows the average people to keep up to date with the lives of their favorite celebrities, is a micro-blogging social network website that allows people to publish 140 character messages that can be read by followers. In the face of a natural disaster, though, Twitter provided a new, invaluable service that other media outlets could not provide.
Not only is Twitter a useful way to provide personal accounts of natural disasters; it is also much speedier than any other news source. Twitter accounts are updated and maintained by average citizens, which means that information can be posted immediately rather than having to wait to go through production, as it does television news media. Reporters take the time to set up a story, and get an angle on the story. With Twitter, information can flow rapidly, before it ever reaches the major news outlets. It provides information immediately, which is what people want in the face of a natural disaster.
Twitter, the free social network site, has evolved from a simple gossip network into an important source of news in the face of a natural disaster. The world of journalism is always evolving, providing citizen journalists the opportunity to serve their fellow citizens in an invaluable way.

SoCal Earthquake a Powerful Reminder of Twitter’s Potential.. (July 29, 2008). http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/29/socal-earthquake-a-powerful-reminder-of-twitters-potential/
Poulsen, Kevin. Firsthand Reports from California Wildfires Pour Through Twitter. (October 23, 2007). http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/10/firsthand-repor/