Social media played an important role in reporting on the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. [1] Citizens used Twitter to share information and photos from the scene, providing real-time updates. [2] However, some information spread on social media was inaccurate, with widely varying casualty estimates. [3] The challenges of balancing immediacy versus accuracy in crisis reporting using social media are discussed.

1. #mumbai
Social Media in Times of Crisis

2. Timeline of the Reporting on Social Media Sites

3. CBS Story on Citizen Journalism

6. 80 tweets sent to Twitter
via SMS every five seconds
- (Source: CNN)

7. #mumbai tweets: peak of roughly 1,000/hr
Screenshot courtesy of Gauvra Mishra, taken at 12:18 pm India time 11/28

8. Vinu’s
stream
“ Taken late night Nov 26
at Colaba. Arranged in
the order I took the
snaps as I visited this
place - 15 mins after I
heard the sound. 2 mins
walking distance from
my house.
“

10. Google Map of
the attack sites
Use of geo-tagging

12. A Question of Accuracy

13. A Question of Accuracy
“Sure, lots of Twitter
messages are flat out
wrong and can spread
disinformation. But as
Ingram notes in his blog
post above, other people
tend to immediately
correct those errors. Bad
information is quickly
drowned out by good
information.”
- Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

14. A Question of Accuracy
“Sure, lots of Twitter quot;It was actually an
messages are flat out incoherent, rumour-
wrong and can spread fueled mob operating in
disinformation. But as a mad echo chamber of
Ingram notes in his blog tweets, re-tweets and re-
post above, other people re-tweets. During the
tend to immediately hour or so I followed on
correct those errors. Bad Twitter there were wildly
information is quickly differing estimates of
drowned out by good the numbers killed and
information.” injured - ranging up to
1,000.quot;
- Michael Arrington, TechCrunch - Blogger Tim Mallon (Source: CNN)

16. Potential for
misinformation

17. Did the Indian government
originate that message?
Amy Gahran, an editor of the Poynter
Institute's E-Media Tidbits blog tracked
down the original message to a Twitter
user named Mark Bao, who is a high
school junior based in Boston.

18. ?
Food for Thought
• What is more important in reporting:
immediacy or accuracy?
• Who/what is the media nowadays?
• How can we apply the social media
lessons learned from this incident to PR?
• Does social media feed terrorists sensitive
info? Could it be used as a terrorism tool?

19. Credits Dr. Corinne Weisgerber
St. Edward’s University
Blog: http://socialmediaprclass.blogspot.com
Email: corinnew@stedwards.edu
Opening Slide Photo Credit: Surag (Flickr:.rGz)