Blogs & Social Networks Supply The News

I have had CNN on most of the day, watching the developments of the horrific 8.8 earthquake near Chile. What strikes me most, being an avid blogger, is the importance that Social Media sites like Twitter, Facebook and BLOGS have played in this tragedy.

Through various earlier posts through out this blog, we have talked about the increasing popularity of social networking. We have also talked in depth on how important they are to blogs and the blogging community. If you have been on the fence whether to join or use your Twitter, or Facebook accounts, this event should give you that push, to jump in and become more involved with connecting with these social networking sites.

Incredibly CNN has been introducing so much information from blogs and the social sites, that the gold standard of information the Associated Press and others are actually taking a back seat.

We are no longer in an era where the news reports to us, we report the news.

We are the new writers, photographers and editors. To sit and listen to all the warnings for this Tsunami that is going to be landing onto the shores of Hawaii in real time, seems almost surreal. Some of the reporters are regular people like you and I, who have a laptop or Blackberry. Go to Mashable.com and see the latest pictures of the earthquakes destruction before CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS or your local news channel has them!

Here is the live feed from Mashable.

Free video streaming by Ustream

Most of the video that has been shown are coming from Skype. No longer are we boxed into watching the Big Three network cameras, we can actually click on a link and go to a live shot from web cams from all over the world to watch for ourselves. No middle men, no censored information.

The New News

What will the future look like in regards receiving the news? What will our main news gathering sources be?  This will now be left to the imagination of each and every one of us. Regardless that the quality will vary greatly from site to site. We no longer will we be spoon fed what larger corporations decide what is news worthy and important.

To prove this fact out, one of the “reporters” that CNN has relied on, has been Elliot Yamin, a previous contestant of American Idol, who happened to be in Santiago, Chile as the quake hit. Here is a part of what he has been giving to the CNN audience.

No matter how some governments want to control the information it’s population will be allowed to view. That control is quickly being taken away from them. No longer will Google censor what the Chinese people decide to write about or look at. As much as I bash Google, I am happy to see them take a stand on this issue. Even though they might lose millions of dollars, they should not have baby sit the Chinese governments antiquated views.

Technology is growing at a rate so quick,  that, what was taught to a college student in year one is completely different by the time that student buys course books for their third year of college.

I showed this video before in the Top Ten Viral Videos of 2009. I think it appropriate to post it again. Finally all our prayers and thoughts go out to those who have been greatly affected by these past tragedies of Haiti and Chile.

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Posted by Eric on Feb 27 2010 Filed under FEATURES, MEDIA, NEWS, PICTURES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry