Journalism

Hudson River crash reveals Twitter in league of its own for breaking news

Kristine Lowe

15 Jan 2009 — 1 min read

For my part, the story of the plane that crashed into Hudson River started with this message on Twitter:

@BreakingNewsOn is checking on reports that a plane has crashed in the Bronx, New York. More to come.

More messages from @BreakingNewsOn, several others chip in, incl @davewiner and @HAX. I go upstairs, turn on the TV (about 15min after the story broke now): NOTHING. Web: nothing on the frontpage of Nettavisen.no, NRK or BBC; - NRK headline story is former prime minister Kåre Willoch: "Eg angrar ikkje" (Je ne regrette rien), a storm in a teacup if you ask me - but CNN has the goods. Good, very moving web-TV.

I go downstairs again and find a cacaphony of people informing each other on Twitter; sharing tidbits of what's happening and who's twittering, who's goot footage and snapshots, including these amazing pictures. At this point NRK.no has the plane crash story, but still not as top story - Willoch still rules the evening (FAIL).

And no, I'm not trying to break any news with this post, for that it is much too late: both for this particular news story and when it comes to Twitter's record for being the first place to look for breaking news stories - this is just a snapshot of how I got the news, recorded as much for myself as anyone else.

A few comments from the Twittersphere :

@kevglobal Still "don't get" Twitter? Enter "Hudson" or "Airways" into http://search.twitter.com/ right now. Brace for bad news; plane crash

@webbmedia Twitteverse, Twitpic, excellent job! I'm amazed at how much information I learned so quickly...While waiting AT AN AIRPORT!

Update 16/1, 11:24 CET: just remembered that I removed the Twitter widget from this blog recently due to a security bug, but you'll find me twittering here: @KristineLowe

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