How our readers cover breaking news
I’m not saying that the world doesn’t need traditional media outlets to cover and explain major breaking news. After all, I’m a member of a traditional media outlet. I’ll fight anybody who says we’re not needed.
Look at our coverage of what I’m writing about for all the proof you need that the old-school media is crucial when it comes to recording and explaining what’s going on.
Some of our coverage: Tempe Town Lake dam bursts
But, citizens have us beat at the very moment something happens. They don’t have our guidelines. They aren’t bound by the effort it takes to get something posted on our news sites. They don’t have to worry too much about accuracy or quality.
They just post stuff and try to get a few words in before moving on. What they leave behind, though, is proof of a grassroots effort to cover breaking news.
Let’s take the big news of the day in Phoenix today, for example. A dam busted at arguably the biggest local tourism attraction.
It happened late at night, so thankfully nobody was hurt. But it absolutely drained a huge lake and will certainly cause a ripple affect of impact in the weeks to come.
Let’s examine some of the things that people were posting on twitter. This is a drop in the metaphorical bucket.
Photos
A twitter search within an hour after it happened revealed several grainy pictures. Both TwitPic and YFrog were being used by people who managed to get some decent photos, considering most were probably using a cell phone in near total darkness.
These are the first two I saw.
This a really great shot sent in by myroundtable on twitter. I screencapped the photo so as to avoid completely stealing from the guy.
Click on it to make it bigger. It’s not bad quality at all. It was one of the first I noticed and does a great job of simply letting people know something happened at what is a major local landmark.
He submitted a few more. But this one is my favorite.
He wasn’t the only one though. LaurenC7, on twitter, got close enough to actually make out the busted dam and got a photo from the mayor’s press conference.
That photo is a little blown out, but the point is she was there. Here is a picture I took from her twitpic feed.
It’s not even close to the quality that our shooter got once he got there. The photos he took were gorgeous and successfully fought off the darkness.
But twitterers such as Lauren did something that we couldn’t. They banded together, without really planning to, and instantly streamed images from the scene that included observations and reaction.
Watching them do it was pretty cool.
Video
I’m a big fan of mobile video. I’ll be writing about it later. Breaking news is a major reason why. It takes little effort, requires no editing, and allows the user to keep moving once the file has uploaded.
It’s brilliant.
Here are some examples of what I’m talking about. Two were from the night the dam busted. One is a morning-after video that does tons to show the odd feeling you will get from watching a lake completely emptied out.
Qik
For those who don’t know, Qik is perhaps the best mobile videos service out there right now. It works seamlessly with most smartphones and keeps recorded videos on your profile.
I found at least one person who qikked from the lake the night it busted. These two were recorded by the Qik user Montitempe.
The night of
The next morning
The quality of the first video isn’t perfect and he could have talked more about what he was seeing. But he was able to record and post from the scene. I’m not sure of the timeline, but it’s possible that he posted this before the traditional media got there.
YouTube
YouTube has created a new page dedicated entirely to residents recording news. It doesn’t always work out that way, but Citizentube is a great idea.
Two videos from the dam got posted.
The first is from the night. It’s short but shows the water running over and is very clear. You can see a crowd gathering to watch what’s going on. What’s your bet that most of them were tweeting, qiking or youtubing?
Here is the second one, from a different user. This one is of the day time.
So what’s the point of me posting all this? It’s simple.
I think sometimes we get caught up in worrying about HD quality videos and pictures and forget that readers are accustomed to looking at grainy photos and dark videos.
They will forgive quality if they get stuff to look at minutes after it happens. Our challenge is to be as fast as our readers are but with more depth, accuracy and accountability.
I love it.
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