Keeping up with breaking news on social media
Asina Pornwasin
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- SOCIAL MEDIA has played a huge part in providing the latest updates and minute-by-minute accounts on several incidents that have taken place over the past week. In fact, real-time coverage on social media was so good that even mainstream journalists found themselves relying on their Facebook timelines, Twitter and Instagram.

The first big incident was Typhoon Nari, which brought heavy rains to many parts of the nation and left many areas of the capital flooded. Thanks to the photographs posted on social media, people were able to see the state of the roads and many motorists could avoid getting caught in jams.

The second event was when a backhoe hit the water mains at the Makkasan intersection on Wednesday, causing a pipe to burst. This left people living on Ratchaprarop Road and nearby areas without water, and many commercial buildings in 30-centimetre flood. It also worsened the morning rush-hour traffic.

Then there was the Lao Airlines tragedy on Wednesday afternoon, when the plane plunged into Mekong River as it tried to land at Pakse Airport. All 49 passengers, including five Thais, and the crew were killed. Later the same day, the main Supercheap outlet in Phuket was gutted.

News of all these events were first broken on social media, with people at the site or nearby posting photos and information right away. It also helped mainstream media monitor developments, which they could later confirm and present as breaking news on their websites.

Social media has many uses, especially when it comes to presenting news. Some mainstream media outlets use the resource directly by just citing sources, while others go one step further by picking up the lead, checking facts, adding additional information and presenting it as news. Some media outlets do both.

However, one of the biggest problems journalists face nowadays is keeping up with the speed of social media and ensuring that they do not present wrong information.

Last week's events proved how good social media can be for communicating, spreading and circulating real-time information during natural disasters and tragedies. However, this also presents challenges for journalists, when it comes to ensuring accuracy, especially when incidents take place at night or in areas that are beyond their jurisdiction.

It appears that the best solution in this case would be for news journalists to collaborate with citizen journalists in order to keep up with events and ensure accuracy at the same time.

Now, how they get to do this in an efficient manner is still something that needs to be worked on.


-- The Nation 2013-10-19

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And I thought it was only used to post photo's of what your eating

Oh, and don't forget all those cats.

Mainstream journalists rely on social media well I suppose if they're covering a local story it beats getting off their <deleted> and going out to do it personally.

Only problem is when the social media version goes wrong and they have to find an excuse to explain poor reporting by them as it's unlikely a Thai will admit they were at fault.