Social Media and Social Unrest
Much like Apple has revolutionized the way we buy music, social media has changed the way we receive our news. Some are calling this the “post-televised news” age, meaning journalism, or what passes for it these days, is no longer exclusive to the professionals. In 140 characters or less, you
too can report news from across the globe. As news unfolds
faster and faster, and more opinions are entering the marketplace
of ideas, social movements seem to be adapting to the social
media age. I can only wonder how the Rodney King riots
would have unfolded had Twitter existed in the 1990s.
Can’t you just see the hashtag “#CantWeAllJustGetAlong”
sitting at the top of the trending topics?
Over the last few weeks, the major topic on
social media–besides the onslaught of ALS Ice Bucket
Challenge videos–has been the riots in Ferguson, MO. Earlier
this week, the Wall Street Journal reported
that close to 8 million tweets on the subject of the
unrest had been sent between August 9 and August 18.
That is roughly 4,400 tweets per minute. Whether they
be expressions from afar or reports from on site,
people cannot seem to stop talking about Ferguson.
In an August 22 article for the Financial Times,
Hannah Kulcher reported that TV networks were
woefully behind Twitter specifically, as over 1,000,000
tweets hit the web before CNN had even one
full minute of coverage. This statistic, taken from the
Pew Research Center, refers to the first appearance
of the story on any medium.
TweetMe Please
