We’ve always had Newstip hotlines, but Social Media just seems to facilitate a faster, easier access and a higher level of trust. And with the ability to transmit photos and video it provides an incredibly robust channel. Early one morning last summer, I turned on the morning news to see a house fire in my old neighborhood. I have never called in a news tip, but before I even thought twice, I found myself DMing the station with info on who the on-scene reporters could contact for a back story.

Attribution and accuracy with Social Media is definitely a concern, but there are some who feel that traditional media sometimes can lack objectivity and neutrality as well. And as someone who has been mis-quoted and inaccurately covered by the media dozens of times over my life, sometimes accuracy can be a problem too. I’m thinking the real “win” will be the checks and balances the two of them will provide each other.

It’s amazing what Twitter has done for local news, and really news organizations on a global level.

For me, it was last summer that Milwaukee news organizations finally *got* the value of social media.

When the MPD officers were shot on the south side, we were all scrambling for information, photos and video. Then here comes @mrc58 (mrcollins back then), twitpic-ing photos from the scene. Within minutes, we were using his photos on television and shortly thereafter, we had him doing a phone interview live.

I think we’re all just scratching the surface of what SM can do for local news… and what local news can do for SM.

Driving home from Brookfield in the storm, I found myself checking the feed to plan a route home. And once I got safely to my couch, I was surfing 3 different channels and refreshing the feed way past my bed time. I couldn’t get enough.

I absolutely agree it is a win-win for viewers, but I also share the concern about attribution and accuracy, but there are certain situations where reliability is less of a concern. Traditional media simply can’t be everywhere during massive events (floods, blizzards, large fires, plagues of locusts). But social media isn’t real good at providing perspective, the big picture, and expert information. It will be interesting to see how the relationship between the two matures, but while they duke it out and figure out how to co-exist, users will continue to benefit big time.

While my thoughts here focused on the “Media” aspect of Twitter, your experience reminds us of the “Social” part. It really is those relationships that empower that community to be the force it has become.

The love & appreciation for my friends (yes I am going to use the word friends here, they are certainly way more than followers to me) I’m fortunate to converse with on Twitter, were cemented even more after I had a chance to catch up on the posts I missed.

All I wanted to do was make it home before the nasty weather got even worse. I never expected to be caught in it.

The unbelievable amount of genuine concern & support from my friends still overwhelms me. Posts turned into direct messages, which turned into text messages, that also turned into phone calls – just to make sure that I had made it out ok. A good number of these people were experiencing storm-related issues in their own homes/businesses. Yet they still checked-in to see if I had made it home safe. Wow. Just wow. To everyone out there – thank you.

If anyone ever had any doubts about the value of Twitter, I hope they come across all of the stories (in print, online & TV/Radio) that illustrates just how awesome & diverse of a community the people on Twitter really are.

It truly is relationship building in 140 characters or less.

Katie

My concern though relates to the infrastructure stability of social networks like Twitter when there is a National or Global event. Something as popular as the iPhone4 launch was enough to shut down Twitter and Ustream. For the new mediums to be a real long term replacement to broadcast, the infrastructure needs a lot of work.

We have basically become a nation of “instant information.” It’s difficult to sit in front of the television for 30 minutes to wait for a “breaking news” story to be reported fully, when we could easily log on to Twitter and search for that topic to receive up-to-the-minute updates from “citizen reporters.” When I got back to Oshkosh on Thursday evening, I turned on the Milwaukee news channels to see the coverage they were providing on the “Brew City Flood.” However, at the same time I was on my computer, logged on to Twitter to see what my followers were saying. The content that my followers provided, be it TwitPics, TwitVids or short updates, was more beneficial to me than watching the reports on TV. In my opinion, the news stations’ reports seemed “slow.” By this, I mean that each story would last a few minutes, with some b-roll footage of flooding streets and floating cars, and a somewhat lengthy report from the news crew. I then turned to Twitter to get the necessary information that I needed. “A sinkhole swallowed an Escalade!” “Here’s a picture of the car in the sinkhole.” “I haven’t ever seen a storm like this in my life!” The information on Twitter was to the point and provided exactly what I was looking for.

In general, I still rely on the television news and newspapers to receive in-depth reports and guaranteed credible information. Because reporters in the television and newspaper industries have been educated and know the guidelines and rules to reporting, I trust them more with what they have to say than with what a “random” person on Twitter has posted. But in the case of breaking news and the need for instant updates, I will most likely turn my computer on before my television.

Over the decades, Radio, TV and Newspapers as a source of information have appealed to different types of individuals for different reasons. It’s fascinating to watch the shift caused by the emergence of the Web and Social Media, and the unique impact it has on each of those media. Watching expanded TV news during a weather event is a tradition that’s apparently ingrained in some of us as deeply as our DNA. My curiosity was peaked by how Social Media was impacting that specific tradition last night and just inspired me to write about that aspect.

I also read and enjoyed the JS coverage of the event this morning. As a fan of “The Paper” since I was thirteen (yes, 43 years ago), I also have a fascination with the shift as it impacts the newspaper business (as well as your business’s response to that shift). Your point about verification is an important one…for those to whom verification and amplification trumps fast, immediate and possibly wrong.

All of that will no doubt be fodder for another blog in the near future.

P.S. Congratulations on your awards!

Let’s not forget that the news stations — and the newspaper and its web site, which you don’t reference at all — also do an invaluable service by verifying what is and is not true and by being a conduit for that information for the wider community (more than 2 million views by noon today, in fact), much of which is not on Twitter.

While you may have first heard about an Escalade in a hole via a tweet, it was the Journal Sentinel that did the reporting and relayed a first witness account of the rescue of the driver from the hole. Mark Pawlik graciously shared his story and his photographs with us. And this was what was picked up by the national media.

What’s worth noting, Tom, is not some kind of an everyman vs. big media dynamic but rather the ways in which individuals, local officials and media can collaborate.

(To be transparent about things — I was the JS staffer who reported from the sinkhole).

The fact that it still is a story shows that we have a long way to go. I still encounter way too many people who still have no idea what Twitter even is. But just like the 87% of all businesses polled at the time I started my company who said they would never have a need for the Web, eventually they too will come around.

Events like this, and stories like yours will make enough noise and have enough impact that they’ll provide the impetus.

Katie’s (@bootyp) story was a very eye opening part of it as well, you only realize how closely together social tools can bring you to one person when that person is in need or danger. And no less then a few hundred people were laser focused on her twitter stream for over an hour all collectively pulling for her, just amazing.

Thanks again for bringing this to the surface and in this light Tom, it’s your analytical sense that makes all of us more aware of the changes all around us.

Joe

I rarely go directly to a news website first. I typically see what people are talking about on Twitter to give live updates, such as I did last night for the Milwaukee storm. Using Twitipic and other Twitter photo platforms, is an excellent photo journalism tool. Everybody becomes photo journalists and reporters.

Great post. Happy Friday!