Menu
Mark Borkowski.
Mark My Words
  • Blog
  • About
  • Talks
  • Press
  • Books
  • Social
  • Archive
  • Contact
Close Menu
November 28, 2008

The Power of Twitting

Twitter has demonstrated its awesome power of its network in the ugliest of circumstances; the massacre in Mumbai has brought the networking, information sharing website right to the forefront of news gathering as the tragedy was played out on millions of people’s mobile phones and inboxes second by second.

CNN reported Twitter user “naomieve”’s response to the outpouring of information: “Mumbai is not a city under attack as much as it is a social media experiment in action.”

This is correct to an extent – certainly, news of the attack spread via Twitter far quicker than the old media could report on it, to the extent that immediate reports were dictated by the often conflicting information that was pouring out of Mumbai, twitted, re-twitted and passed around the world as fast as the eye can blink. But that soon gave way to traditional media headlines being recycled.

The astonishing speed and multiplicity of Twitter is also its weakness – the amount of re-twitted reports mean that it is impossible to tell what is an eyewitness account from a hotel and what is rumour or even mean-minded invention.

It is worth bearing in mind that it is a tool as useful to the terrorists as it is to anyone and to remember, as the old Second World War posters instructed, that “careless talk costs lives”. Twitter is an exciting tool and it’s now very much in the spotlight, at the cutting edge of communications. All that remains now is for all of us, from commentators to people in desperate situations such as those faced in Mumbai, to use it responsibly.

To read the full story from CNN click here.

Related Posts

Mark My Words

The sedative effects of PR speak

Mark My Words

As we clap for Captain Tom, remember him for the hero he was

Mark My Words

To get its head around Reddit, Wall Street will have to stop calling it ‘dumb money’

Recent Posts

  • How Harry’s very LA relaunch has only just begun
  • Piers Morgan to return ‘turbocharged’ with new ‘TV show & columns’ after quitting GMB
  • William plots royal ‘fightback’ as he urges Queen to respond ‘robustly’ to Harry’s attack
  • ‘The royal family was castrated’ – the US & UK PR verdict on Meghan & Harry’s Oprah interview
  • Meghan and Harry’s revelations not yet fatal for British monarchy

Previous posts

April 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Mar    

Archives

Back To Top
Mark Borkowski.
  • Blog
  • About
  • Talks
  • Press
  • Books
  • Social
  • Archive
  • Contact
© Mark Borkowski. 2021
Mark My Words
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram