A320

Once again, Twitter goes pretty wild over a breaking news event. Is it the rubbernecking? Simple astonishment that we can discuss in real time and filter for snippets of information on our own?

Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider has the inside story on Twitter user Janis Krums who was not only on one of the rescue planesferries, (duh), but who appears to have Twitpic’d the first(?) image — and a good one that’s been widely used in the news coverage — of the fuselage floating in the Hudson. 34 minutes later he was interviewed on MSNBC as an eyewitness. UPDATE: The “Twitter’s Role in This” meme is spreading fast. See related links for LATimes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and more.

Eric Zeman at Information Week aptly describes Twitter’s role in covering the crash here.

Today was yet another indicator that Twitter is the way we’re going to consume breaking news in the future. I learned about the U.S. Airways Hudson River plane crash before it was on CNN.com, NYTimes.com and FOXnews.com.

First there was an earthquake over the summer. Then the downed jet fighter in San Diego. Today, Twitter was the source I first saw reporting the U.S. Airways flight that crash-landed into the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey.

The Mumbai Attacks, Earthquakes in LA, China, Russia, the conflict in Gaza, wildfires in California, celebrity deaths, election results… Soon the long list of events that have spiked their way through the emergent Twitter-news ecosystem will become unremarkable. We’ll get used to the fact that we can now connect, publish and collaborate in real time from mobile devices anywhere in the world that there is signal. This awareness will become widespread and more interestingly, smart uses of its potential will continue to emerge. New things are coming. We don’t know the half of it yet.

As an aside, this tragic YouTube video of a hijacked plane running out of fuel and ditching into the ocean (warning, it is destroyed on impact and there were many casualties) explains why I was fascinated by the obvious heroism of the flight crew that brought USAirways flight 1549 to land safely in the Hudson River, saving the lives of all aboard and those living in the densely populated surroundings.

(WARNING: the video is disturbing as the plane does not make it and lives are lost.)

Related stories:

• LATimes
  
• TechCrunch
• VentureBeat
  
• GearLog
  
• BeetTV

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