

U.S. Airways crash rescue picture: Citizen journalism, Twitter at work - fromedome
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/us-airways-crash-rescue-picture-citizen-jouralism-twitter-at-work

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neilk
This is interesting, but I'm not sure I'd call it citizen journalism. Citizen
'reporting' more like. I think of journalism as a profession that requires
research and analysis, not just being there with a camera.

~~~
jfornear
I agree, and if I ever witness a tragedy first hand, I hope my first thoughts
won't be to post a pic on Twitter.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
What will your first thought be? This guy was a passenger on the ferry that
was heading towards the plane to help, so what was he supposed to do, jump
into the river and try to get there faster? Fashion a makeshift paddle and
help propel the ferry? Seems like posting a picture of the plane to twitter is
a reasonable response when you're standing around watching rescue crews do
their job.

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jfornear
I don't know if there is anything wrong with merely taking a picture, but
posting it online right away when you aren't exactly sure what happened yet
isn't sensitive to the families of the potential victims involved.

When I turned on the news earlier, a cameraman was chasing a lady on a
stretcher even though she was covering her face, obviously to avoid being
shown... During 9/11, the news showed people jumping out of the towers...

Just because we have the technology and response time to bring these moments
to our living rooms in real-time doesn't mean it's appropriate... you know?

EDIT: How many tragedies does the tech industry need to get over the fact that
we have cell phone cameras with web applications that let us converse about
them in real-time? Do you really think these tech journalists care about the
victims involved?

[http://techblips.dailyradar.com/story/real_time_terrorism_ca...](http://techblips.dailyradar.com/story/real_time_terrorism_captured_on_twitter_mumbai_attacks/)

[http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/web/mumbai-
attacks-...](http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/web/mumbai-attacks-live-
on-twitter-flickr/2008/11/27/1227491713487.html)

[http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/28/mumbai-twitter-sms-tech-
int...](http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/28/mumbai-twitter-sms-tech-internet-
cx_bc_kn_1128mumbai.html)

I'm not going to mention names, but when I see some of these tech journalists
get all riled up about the real-time web every time a tragedy occurs it makes
me sick.

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ryanwaggoner
Disagree. Are there instances in which journalists and tech are too intrusive
into private matters? Absolutely. Is one of them taking a cell phone picture
from the deck of a ferry while media helicopters swarm around the scene? No
way. Please explain how this picture is insensitive to the family members.

Are you seriously arguing that in the face of a tragedy, no information is
preferable to those worried about their family members? The Mumbai attacks are
an even better example: if I had a family member in Mumbai during the attacks,
I'd want every single piece of info and data I could get my hands on, rather
than having to wait forever for the "official" reports.

~~~
jfornear
You're right. I just get a bad feeling when the random Twitter user starts
giving interviews and becomes the hero, and when every tragedy inevitably
turns into a discussion about Twitter and the real-time web.

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asmithmd1
I grabbed the flight data from Flight Aware:
[http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE1549/history/20090115/...](http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE1549/history/20090115/2026Z/KLGA/KLGA/tracklog)

And plotted on Google maps: <http://wherephone.com/usairFlight.htm>

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vaksel
Man I wouldn't want to be a New Yorker, looking at a big ass plane flying low
over the city

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vaksel
You know twitter has gone mainstream...when plane crash after plane crash
there is either a twitterer on board, or close by

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lionheart
This is why I think censorship is impossible in today's society. The instant
an event happens news of it will spread virally over the Internet faster than
any agency can block it.

Welcome to the new world.

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trickjarrett
Twitter is by definition viral. It passes from person to person and expands
outwards as networks intersect and overlap.

I always applaud Twitter getting more mainstream press but the fact is that
Twitter expands in a very different way than most other service sites, it's of
no use to people who don't know anyone else on it. My brother and sister both
got on it but I was the only person they knew on it and so they faded back off
of it.

So coverage only helps name recognition and I suspect has very little in terms
of direct conversion from this sort of thing.

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vaksel
how is that any different from any other social network?

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trickjarrett
Because on others there is more to do than simply communicate. On Facebook you
can find events, locations, fans, and such. On Myspace you can listen to bands
and music. So there is stuff to do before you've built up a network, on
Twitter it's vacuous when you don't have that many friends or people you're
following.

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lallysingh
IMHO one of the main reasons Facebook got popular early was that it had photo
sharing early.

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rrhyne
That's my dad's route. Flew it all day yesterday, and I think he was flying
today.

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rrhyne
Looks like he wasn't flying today. WHEW.

