Earthquake in UK? News Broken on Twitter
It would appear that an earthquake was just felt across the UK (hopefully not a major one!). Where did the news first break? Well, we heard about it over Twitter. It's all over the site, including being broken on Twitter-based news organization BreakingNewsOn, which is reporting a 5.3 magnitude earthquake in the UK with minimal damage reported so far. Where didn't we hear about the quake? The mainstream press.
This story broke over Twitter in the past half hour, and nothing is up yet on the BBC sites, the Guardian, or the Telegraph. This story is breaking live on Twitter.
That's something we've been seeing more and more of recently. During the California wildfires last fall, we saw Twitter and other citizen journalism tools being used by people who were on the ground in those areas scooping the mainstream press. As we noted in January, Twitter breaks the news cycle down to seconds, allowing instantaneous distribution of breaking news as it breaks -- faster even than blogs or television.
We predicted that Twitter would "become an increasingly more important point for the distribution of breaking news during 2008, to the extent that traditional journalists will begin to pay more and more attention to it the way they have to blogs." This evening's earthquake in England, which was first broken over the microblogging service, is proof positive of Twitter's value as a vehicle for news distribution.
Note: Just to drive home the point, the BBC had the story up a full 35-40 minutes after we first heard about it via Twitter. Not bad by any means, but that just further illustrates how much Twitter breaks down the news cycle.
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You hit it on the head - I am not even seeing anything on TV about this let alone any major news websites.
It was about half past 12 we went to bed ..as we were just about to fall a asleep, i felt this scary shake all over the house, i thought my heart was going to exploed..I am actualy a turkish lady who had lived the bad experience of the disasterous earthquake in ISTANBUL IN 1999 and there were too many people dead , too many injuries...too many people were on the streets...I do know that after this earthquake that we have experienced there will be aftershocks definately as this one was a strong one...the only reason UK survives this earthquake with no injuries its because of the structure of the houses and for them to be singular rather then apartments like in EUROPE...
Just little advise to everyone who is expecting the aftershocks, please sleep your bedroom doors open , so that in the event of and emergency to get out of the house , you will not be traped in your own house ....because when an aftershock hits the structure of the doors will be moved and the doors will get stuck!!!!
So lets hope aftershocks will not be as strong...
Citizen journalism is just becoming huge, this is just another great example for those who still aren't seeing the value of tools like twitter..
I heard about it from a guy from UK on xbox live.
xbox live > twitter.. they can talk while its happening not just text afterwards ;)
@dmix -- touche, but then, I doubt you had 1,356 listening in on your XBox Live conversation (the number of followers to BreakingNewsOn on Twitter). ;)
Are you suggesting the MSM was caught napping? MSM news and Twitter news are different in kind - one is mediated, the other is not. Of course Twitter news will "break" first, just as you would expect family and friends to break the news to each other over the landlines, mobile or SMS, before the MSM have a chance to filter it. For the MSM to print unmediated chatter is expecting too much, surely?
Twitter isn't news. It may be information, and useful, but "news" is something different.
@TomA: Fair points. I don't think anyone is suggesting that the mainstream news has no place -- to quote our January story: "Twitter won't replace blogging or newspapers, but as Ruffini says, it 'open sources the process of developing ideas and gathering news tips, giving us a complete window onto the news cycle.'"
What we're suggesting is that Twitter and other citizen journalism tools are becoming increasingly important in the reporting and dissemination of breaking news. The mainstream news isn't going away, but with tools like Twitter, Jaiku, Seesmic, Kyte, blogs, IM, social networks, etc. breaking down the news cycle to seconds, they have to pay attention or continually fall behind.
The power of citizen journalism is that it means more eyes on the ground where the news is happening. Rather than relying on a network of reporters and the occasional tipster to tell you when news is happening, everyone becomes a reporter capable of breaking news.
@Jeffrey McManus: I disagree. Clearly not everything on Twitter is news. But news is nothing more than timely (or recent) information, and that is something that Twitter can, and very frequently does, impart.
A square is a rectangle, but not every rectangle is a square. You can find news on Twitter, but not every tweet will be news.
Josh - agreed. And The Register has interesting things to say :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/27/quake_media_useless/
Love the URL.
I live about eight miles from the epicenter and I woke up when it happened, but then at 5am was asking my girlfriend if I'd dreamt it. All it was was some rumbling, but this morning we get to see all the typical loonies talking on the news about their cupboards flying open, chimneys collapsing and what not.. I thought it was just a big lorry going past (we live on a main road) until I saw the BBC News site! :)
Damn quake ruined my sleep - I feel awful now, even my humongous morning coffee hasn't perked me up.
Did the quake show up on Twittervision?! Now that would be cool...
At this point, I hear about most major news on Twitter long before it shows up on the mainstream news feeds... It can take up to an hour for something to show up on Reuters or BBC or the AP.
Twitter is the 21st century back fence - and nothing is faster than the speed of gossip.
The earthquake woke us up at 00.56 GMT and by 01.15 Sky News had details of the quake.
Hi
I think SUMO.tv broke it before twitter as they were live on TV last night. While the quake was happening the presenter was talking/interviewing her Mum who was in Manchester and they mentioned it on air. There were then several people texting in and talking about it.
It was Facebook status updates for me, rather than Twitter - I posted a msg once the first tremors were felt, and this was followed by other messages appearing... Sky news was the first to include it in the mainstream press approx 10 minutes after the tremors, followed by BBC around 10 minutes after that... Before then, it was quite interesting seeing that older earthquakes dating from 2007 were the most popular news on BBC in the UK all of a sudden, confirming that it was an earthquake!
Hmm... I only just heard about it, but through an even more detached method. Friends of mine joining an "I survived the earthquake" group on Facebook!
While speed is something, the number of different ways you can find information out these days is quite astounding and a big positive reflection on the services that allow this. Be it Twitter, Facebook or Digg, we are now more aware of happenings around the world without relying on old media.
Few days ago, the January 1, the Llaima Volcano was started a impressive eruption here in the Southern Chile.
I'm a journalist and spanish weblogger and I have covered the News in my twitter Channel: @Marlex -> twitter.com/Marlex
This day, Twitter has more info than the convencional news sources like TV, Radio and Newspapers.
That show the power of 140 characters to show to the world what's happening in a few areas in our world.
Have a nice day.
www.marlexsystems.org
Hey hey hey, i actually was falling asleep when this happend yet i still didnt feel a thing!
The BBC News web site referred to reports of tremors via its LATEST: ticker within 10 minutes of the earthquake happening at 0056GMT. By 0121GMT, the ticker linked to an article (it's still open on a tab in my browser). Your claim it took them 35-40 minutes is inaccurate.
@rockeye: Maybe it has to do with my location in the US (and being served an international version of the page), but I was reloading the bbc.co.uk main page and the UK news page ever 60 seconds from the time the quake first broke on Twitter, and it was about 35 minutes before any mention appeared on the site.
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I heard a loud bang, seeing we are near Manchester and a few hours away from Lincoln the epi centre, I was concerned!
Did the ground move for you?
I heard a loud bang, seeing we are near Manchester and a few hours away from Lincoln the epi centre, I was concerned!
Did the ground move for you?
@josh: I think in fact news IS "more than timely (or recent) information." It's contextualized and vetted information. There's an editorial function in news gathering. But your larger point that there is news, among the other mere information, on Twitter, is certainly valid I think. As a journalist, or, maybe one-time journalist at this point, I wonder how you can use Twitter as a journalist. Mostly so far it's tech reporters and it's push-marketing. I wonder how many non-tech reporters have used it to gather information on their beats? Unfortunately, I have found Twitter to be stuck in two ghettos, though they're pretty large ones. There is tech twittering and lunch-menu Twittering. :)
After coming back to start figuring out how Twitter would work for me, I am thoroughly addicted. Twitter is a great way to micro-blog.
BBC Radio 5Live's Up All Night programme (transmitted every night between 0100-0500) broke the news at 0103, in-between the top-of-hour news bulletin and the sports bulletin that follows it.
[...]I think we will see an increased use of Web 2.0 on traditional media sites.[...]
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