I have been thinking about the power and truth of live Internet. The power in the numbers is staggering. Today, we can all be journalists, and many of us clearly have a story to report. In fact, before I finish this article I will demonstrate the potential of social journalism with a live video stream from my cell phone, and have it posted to my Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, and others as it happens … in real time. Speed of information delivery is a huge trend these days, as I pointed out in a recent article about social feeds in Google search results, and once you put it out there, it is not going away.
People love to tell their story, and it is even better if they tell it right when it happens. They often want to tell it before they have too much time to dwell on the details, forget about it, or in many cases even give thought to whether it should be told. If it is an important story, they may even find incentive of wide recognition for being the first on the scene.
This goes well beyond only social journalism. Entertainment has also taken on a whole new look. Earlier tonight my son came to me asking to watch some of our videos from a weekend visit to the zoo. He already had a Wii game on, so instead of showing him on the computer, I played them off my YouTube channel on the big screen television. Then I played some more videos off a laptop in the other room by accessing them through my X-Box 360. This all sounds so insane to me that my kids will never remember having to wait until Gilligan’s Island comes on at four o’clock. Who needs old school television these days, except for those who work for television?
If we did not each have a story to tell, there would not be over 35 million people (out of over 350 million active Facebook users) who update their Facebook status each day, and Twitter may only be a group of about 30 people reporting how the cookout at cousin Evan‘s place went. As it is, the world faces a turmoil of how this all works, and how can we best use all this information.
Where this is going and how it will change our society is a story that is being written each day. For some, it is a story of how drunk they got at a fraternity keg party and are sorry for the embarrassing photos they posted on their social networks. Others will apologize to customers for not being the company they portrayed when their media exposure was more one-way, and worked much slower. In extreme cases, nations will defend political scrutiny such as that of the Iran elections being lambasted on Twitter, and people will run scared from health issues like H1N1.
The threat of misinformation and lack of vetting is there, but the real time “get it now” reality creates an appeal to masses that cannot be overlooked. It opens a lot of questions on the value of real time social journalism. I discussed this with a high school journalism teacher just this evening, and we agreed on many things, but challenged others. Overall, I think our conclusions were inconclusive.
So where does it go, and how cool is it that I just coincided the release of this blog post by streaming the first comment from my cell phone? Now imagine doing that five years ago! I was ultra-high-tech in 2008 when I did a 6,000 mile nine day live mobile auto racing Webcast or my Tornado encounters on my storm chasing Webcast. Now all I need to show you my surroundings along with live GPS and live chat is a cell phone and a service like Qik or LiveCast.
On one hand, being live (or close to it) makes it easier to disclaim discrepancies simply for the fact the facts may not all be known. On the other hand, it can leave a door open to fast spread of misinformation and rumors. One known fact is that people are taking notice in great numbers.
The questions and considerations of social journalism are in no short supply, and I hope your comments are not either. Please tell me and others what you think. Let’s discuss it. Add your comments here, and of course, feel free to message me live with the Meebo chat on the left side of this page.
