Russia
Social media broke news of airport bombing before traditional outletsPosted Feb 2 2011
The first tweets about the Jan. 24 bombing of Domodedovo airport appeared minutes after the attack, according to a BBC Monitoring blog post. In contrast, mainstream Russian media outlets began reporting approximately 20 to 40 minutes later.
Domodedovo rapidly became a trending topic on Twitter, and broadcast media utilized user-uploaded photos and video in its reporting. Three of Russia’s main channels, Channel One, Rossiya 1 and NTV were slow to break the news, with brief flashes and little live coverage.
There was one disadvantage to the Twitter coverage: the proliferation of rumors. News of taxi drivers at the airport hiking up fares spread dramatically through the site, according to blogging website Global Voices. This resulted in a hashtag #helpcar trend, carried over from the Moscow train bombings, where people offered lifts to those stranded at the airport.
However, the news turned out to be false, and in fact, a train service from the airport to Moscow actually offered free rides to passengers after the attack, Global Voices reported.
Overall, the micro-blogging site still provided critical information in the immediate aftermath of the attack. A popular satiric tweeter, @KermlinRussia “ceased his ironic style and started to post real, verified and needed information,” Global Voices said.
Another famous Russian blogger, Valeriy Nazarov, commented on the lack of local coverage by describing what each channel was broadcasting: “Channel One – TV show, Rossiya 1 – serial, Centre TV – talk show, NTV – serial. Shall I go on? CNN – live! BBC – live!”