Twitter as a News Source during Natural Disasters

Cardiff.
Leslie-Jean Thornton finishes the session at Future of Journalism by discussing the spread of information on Twitter. She points us to the San Diego fire and the #sandiegofire hashtag, which really was a breakthrough for the use of hashtags on Twitter; this was the first time that hashtags were successfully used for the coordination of discussion around major crisis events.

It is interesting for such breaking news stories to examine the timeline of events on Twitter, of course; this also requires detailed qualitative, even ethnographic work. Early on, journalism on these events hasn’t even emerged yet, so we can study how events are being characterised by the users who just raised them; especially at these early stages, gatewatching and citizen journalism practices may be able to be observed particularly clearly.

Twitter is an ostensibly democratic and open environment, Leslie-Jean says, and this contrasts with the organised practices of journalism. Communities built around particular topics online might form their own structures, by contrast, and these may be able to be observed here, too. Are the journalists participating here actually behaving as journalists?

Leslie-Jean examined a number of bushfire events in the U.S.: #sanbrunofire, #lovelandfire, and #herrimanfire; she examined what was tweeted, and who was doing so. It became obvious very quickly that there were changing definitions of expertise in these contexts (retired firefighters became important sources of information and background, for example), and that key activities were sharing and storytelling, often with reasonably high standards.

Sharing especially included an exchange of mutual validation, following circular processes of reciprocity – and a involving a widespread use of resources from many different online platforms. Discussions went into a number of different directions, from personal stories to political discussion and focus on individual people and animals being caught up in these events (also causing debates over the amount of attention ‘wasted’ on such individual stories).

Clearly, there is factchecking going on in these conversations – and not necessarily by journalists. Twitter is used as a watchdog, and users are often critical of authorities and news organisations not using online media effectively; there are also concerns about the digital divide, and the extent to which information from social media platforms is shared beyond their confines. Policy may also be necessary for safeguarding social media infrastructure in emergencies, and for how to use these platforms effectively.