Twitter’s Role in Breaking News Posted on May 09, 2011 Post a comment

Last week, the world was captivated by the death of Osama Bin Laden. People everywhere found out about his death in a variety of different ways—many even before President Obama made his official address to the nation. But the key reporter on the story was not from CNN or MSNBC. It was Twitter.

Over the past five years, Twitter has grown at a staggering rate, with over 460,000 accounts created each day across the world. 140-character fanatics send an average of 140 million tweets per day, which is literally changing the way that breaking news is released to the world. Users can receive information instantly in a number of different places including their computer, cell phone, iPod, and tablet. There is no need to be near a television, radio, or newspaper. Plus, users are able to forward the information or respond to it at lightening-fast speeds—unlike any tool we’ve had before.

But back to Bin Laden: This is the perfect example of Twitter’s immense and overwhelming power. As seen in the chart below, over the course of an hour and a half (from 9:30pm-11:00pm) the amount of tweets per second increased from around 3,000 to over 5,000. The chart also shows spikes in tweets per second when key events took place such as Keith Urbahn’s tweet and the President confirming Bin Laden’s death to the world. This is not the first time that news has emerged via twitter, nor will it be the last. Twitter is changing the way that people across the world receive daily news, along with a plethora of other information. So, as our world changes, so must our media. If news organizations want to continue competing for newsworthy events, it will be important for them to be on Twitter, broadcasting the breaking news first.

Sources
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/twitter-as-breaking-news-source
http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/03/14/twitter-users-now-sending-1-billion-tweets-per-week