LA Times: "Boston bombings: Social media spirals out of control"

[DCBob]

Good article from LA Times..

Over the last few days, thousands of people have taken to the Internet to play Sherlock Holmes.

Armed with little more than grainy surveillance camera videos, cellphone photos and live tweets from police scanners, they have flooded the Web with clues, tips and speculation about what happened in Boston and who might have been behind it.

Monday's bombings, the first major terrorist attack on American soil in the age of smartphones, Twitter and Facebook, provided an opportunity for everyone to get involved. Within seconds of the first explosion, the Internet was alive with the collective ideas and reactions of the masses.

But this watershed moment for social media quickly spiraled out of control. Legions of Web sleuths cast suspicion on at least four innocent people, spread innumerable bad tips and heightened the sense of panic and paranoia.

"This is one of the most alarming social media events of our time," said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia. "We're really good at uploading images and unleashing amateurs, but we're not good with the social norms that would protect the innocent."

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-boston-bombings-media-20130420,0,19541.story

[madrchsod]

1. yup.....it was really bad.

will anyone learn from this? i doubt it.

[sufrommich]

2. High tech vigilantism combined with the ability

to remain anonymous,not a good combination.Too bad for the innocent people who were accused of terrorism,I can only imagine how frightening that must have been.

[AlinPA]

3. Cable "news" and the NY Post were also out of control.

[Courtesy Flush]

4. You mean, like some traditional news sources did?

The New York Post reported that 12 people had been killed and a Saudi had been arrested.

[sibelian]

9. Yes. It was AS BAD.

... therefore...

BAD.

[LisaL]

5. As oppposed to msm that was falsely reporting that suspects were arrested?

Pot, stop calling the kettle black!

[Triana]

6. The commercial media wasn't any better. They did the same things they are accusing social media of!

Theirs was collectively an utter #FAIL in reporting this story - with one exception: NBC - the rest frankly sucked at their reportage of this. There was wild speculation, ridiculous theories and inaccurate information everywhere in the commercial (not just social) media.

I realize the moneyed corporate-run media must now compete with free, Democratic "Social media" in getting stories out. But for corporate-run mainstream media to complain that "social media" does a worse job of getting info the masses is really hypocritical after what we just saw.

Corprat media can kiss my ass. I relied on DU, Twitter and police scanners for info and did just fine. But then I can usually pick the wheat from the chaff amidst all the noise - not always perfectly but most of the time.

No cable TV for me. Cut it off in 2001. Don't need it.

[Zax2me]

7. LOVE it. Hope more of same in future.

Suspects were IDed as soon as pics released. Listened to scanner of capture last night. Saw the pics of suspects on alt website before FBI released them. (They had IDed attackers on own)

[DCBob]

8. So you "LOVE it" when innocent people are being falsely targeted as terrorists?

I HATE that.

[reformist2]

10. They're mostly upset that they're irrelevant now. We don't need their gossip - we create our own!