March 3, 2010 | Written by Renee Barone
By now I am sure everyone has heard about the devastating earthquake that shook Chile to its core over the weekend. How did I find out? Through Twitter of course!
It’s no secret that social media plays a HUGE role in how we receive information. Pew Internet just released a study that found that 75% of people find their news online through email or social media, with 52% forwarding news through those same means.
The implications of this study were epitomized as this weekend saw a surge of tweets as information about the earthquake became more readily available.
Illustrated above is the number of tweets surrounding Chile over the last week. On Saturday, February 27th, almost 4% of the entire Twittersphere mentioned Chile in some capacity (according to Google, this is approximately 77,500 tweets; however I think it may be more).
Twitter has always been relatively quick to change and seems to be embracing its role as an organic news outlet. Brief statements (140 characters or less) are now posted when you click on the majority of trending topics. Sourcing info from whatthetrend.com gives users some context about the trend.
Is this a lasting means to obtain news? Only time will tell. It concerns me that anyone with a Twitter account can be deemed a “news source”; however, individuals can be key in providing timely updates in situations like this.
What do you think? Should we trust Twitter as a news source or hope that, like a trending topic, this will eventually fade away?
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