Twitter: Breaking News via Social Media

My previous post discusses the impact of social media on our everyday lives. Social media is utilized daily by a wide variety of demographics, and the statistics from 2011 support the growing trend entirely. According to Edison Research, in 2011, approximately 46 million Americans over the age of 12 checked their social media sites several times on a daily basis. While the article refers to Facebook as the driving factor behind most of the statistics, there’s no doubt that Twitter is catching up.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/twitter-worm-hits-googl-redirects-to-fake-anti-virus/7938

Since the site’s launch in 2006, the social media platform has exploded with users. The most recent example of the website’s popularity was displayed this past weekend when music icon, Whitney Houston, passed away. According to this article on Mashable Entertainment, Twitter released the news of Houston’s death before the mainstream press.

Many people, myself included, might say that the primary job of the press is to break stories as they happen. Considering that the first tweet about Houston’s death went out 27 minutes prior to any news station mentioning it, it’s safe to say that the press let us down in a way.  The press does deserve a little slack though. It’s not like this happens on an everyday basis, but it’s not the first time Twitter has outdone mainstream news.

Not only did Twitter break the news first, but the first reported tweet about the incident even alluded to the possible cause of death.  Twitter user @AjaDiorNavy was the first person to tweet about the incident. The tweet claims that Houston was found dead in the bathtub, a fact later restated by celebrity gossip website, TMZ.

While TMZ doesn’t register to many as the most credible website, it’s astounding that someone on Twitter not only reported Houston’s death first, but may have also reported it right.

So far, there are not many incidences where Twitter has broken a top story, but no one can say what will happen in the future when Twitter’s popularity has doubled or even tripled what it is now. Will the general public become the first source for breaking news via social media sites? How did you first find out about the news of Houston’s death?