How Modern News Unfurls

Original Image: winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

With the outbreak of yesterday's terribly tragedy that unfolded on the campus of Virginia Tech, it wasn't the regular news outlets that broke the story - it was the internet. The Twitter-verse was all ablaze, constantly firing off latest happenings, image updates from students and faculty on campus, and hoards of people weighing in with their thoughts and prayers. Facebook was buzzing with people's reactions and people sharing as much information as they could. It was really stunning to see such an event unfold. Mashable had a wonderful compendium of what the reactions were like across Twitter and other social networking sites.

I had to actually think really hard about what it was like before the advent of the internet and instantaneous information. You'd have to turn on the television and actually watch a news report. If the story was huge enough, you'd see that same anchors on for hours on end, just to keep you up-to-date. Or if you think back further, you'd crowd around a radio to hear the newscaster's reports on what was going on at that moment in time.

In these increasingly digital and social days, everyone is essentially a news reporter - to a certain extent. While most people weigh in with their opinions and simple observations, there are few who are actually reporting what's going on. Whether it's people who are within close-range of the event taking place, or someone who dug up a hidden document online and decided to share it, these people are getting the stories out to hundreds, perhaps thousands of people way faster than any news outlet can. The magic lies in the sheer size of the social networks. As everyone can probably imagine, words travels fast on the internet; it's like a wildfire. On several occasions I've meandered onto a traditional website (we'll call it "Yipee!") and looked at their news stories for the day. Majority of the time, half of the stories they have featured on the front page I've already heard or read about it; sometimes up to a day or two prior.

The point is, modern news outlets should embrace social media more-so than they already are to accompany people's expectations of faster and more concise results. I, for one, couldn't imagine picking up a newspaper to read yesterday's news when I'm already familiar with most of what they're featuring. Instant gratification is the name of the game, and that's where we're headed.

Be well,