Social media has allowed people to share breaking news instantaneously. For example, the Earthquake that affected the East Coast sent millions of people to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.

Here are some interesting social media statistics from the earthquake:

  • Within one minute of the earthquake there were 40,000 earthquake-related tweets1.
  • Earthquake-related tweets were coming in at 5,500 tweets per second2.
  • FourSquare saw over 10,000 checkins to Earthquakepocalypse3.

 

Social Media is playing a large role in breaking news situations. People are talking about their experiences as they happen in realtime on Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and other social networking websites.

While social media is sharing these breaking news events, it should be noted that breaking news events are very fluid. Events often change and sometimes there are conflicting messages about the event.

Social networking also poses the risk of spreading false information. Mainstream media is often last to give out information because they are trying to verify the truthfulness and accuracy of the information. Individuals on social media don’t have to verify the accuracy of the information if they don’t want to. These conflicting messages of factual and potentially non-factual information can create a confusing atmosphere on social media.

What do you think?

  1. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/203117/20110824/east-coast-earthquake-2011.htm [↩]
  2. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/203117/20110824/east-coast-earthquake-2011.htm [↩]
  3. http://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=foursquare [↩]