When the devastating earthquake struck China earlier this week, it was not mainstream news organisations which carried the first reports, but micro blogging service Twitter.
Bloggers have described how Twitter trumped mainstream news in reporting the China quake. Image: Twitter logo
Chinese members of the real time messaging group were giving the world real time commentary via short messages on the site, demonstrating its power as a news disseminating service.
Robert Scoble, a blogger who shared news of the earthquake with those of us following him on Twitter described how he used the micro blogging network.
"When I couldn't find any news of the earthquake at CNN or Google News, I went to Tweetscan, which allows you to monitor Twitter discussion by keyword. Sure enough, plenty of news on the earthquake. Including from people in China," he said.
"Several people in China reported to me they felt the quake while it was going on!," Scoble wrote in his popular Scobleizer blog.
Twitter users get to send a maximum of 140 words per message, and its adherents claim news of the China quake was being sent around the world ahead of news from the major news organisations and information from theUS Geological Survey.
"This event has the potential to bring mainstream media into the Twitter world," said blogger Alec Saunders, reported by AFP.
View blog reactions
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment! (no registration required)
Advertising
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment! (no registration required)