A couple of posts ago I had mentioned, very briefly, the role Twitter played when Bombay was being held hostage. Another year, another conflict and social media is playing an even bigger role in getting stories out from a war zone.
CNN yesterday interviewed Palestinian blogger Fida Qishta (who has overnight become a a spokesperson for her people). The broadcaster's iReport website, which allows citizen journalists the opportunity to upload their opinions and news stories, has more than 450 short video clips voicing opinions about the conflict.
Significantly both sides are maximizing the use of social media to win the online propaganda war.
The Israelis have set up a YouTube channel, the IDF spokesperson maintains a blog and Twitter feed, and the Israeli consulate in New York recently held a news conference on Twitter.
Not to be outdone, individual Palestinians and the Electronic Intifada have taken on the well-oiled digital might of the Israelis with live blog posts, gruesome images and news updates to share the tragedy with the rest of the world.
Al Jazeera's new media team launched a live Twitter feed with breaking news from Gaza, joining what is already a huge online conversation where opinions are voiced and news is broken in 140 characters or less. #Gaza is the most talked about subject on Twitter as I write this post.
If anything, this use of social media is revolutionary and may just set the standards for communicating in times of crises. The last few months have seen Social Media move from the sidelines (a marketing tool used to communicate with youngsters, geeks, superfans and other assorted target audiences) to a far more mainstream role (presidential elections and war). This is perhaps just one of many signs of things to come.
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Really good post. It's so true that social media have changed the way people communicate, especially in times of crisis. It makes you wonder what role investigative journalists will have in the coming years, if any. I've written a short post and linked to you :) http://bit.ly/79moVj
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