FriendFeed, Twitter and Mumbai

Image by via CrunchBaseAs the horrific attack in Mumbai exploded onto news feeds, I noticed a lot of traffic on FriendFeed from Twitter posts that were particularly unusual. Commenters pointed to news sources of all stripes – Flickr photo streams, bloggers writting from the scene and other Twits as they came out from the scene.

It quickly overtook mainstream news as the go-to source for at-the-scene information, while larger news outlets took up the task of providing official background – though often that was dissected and dismissed by those at the scene. CNN in particular seemed unsure of where to go or how to handle reporting.

When the larger news networks went blank at the requests of government forces, online sources kept on providing information. I think it was a watershed event for online news, when it bypassed the traditional reporter organizations with an open-source approach to reporting that they were never able to match.

UPDATE: The shooters themselves shifted to online sources for information after the television networks shutoff coverage.