In a matter of moments, that can all change.
On Monday afternoon, two bombs went off 12 seconds apart at the Boston Marathon, an annual event. Over 25,000 runners of all ages took part, some finishing the race injured, and not from the running.
This tragedy took over Twitter, Facebook, and other networks in a matter of minutes. Tweets were tweeted and retweeted. Photos on Facebook were posted. Videos were all over YouTube. And even though a lot of factual things were being posted, a lot of people still had the guts to post something that wasn't accurate.
There were a lot of posts yesterday that were posted. Too many to count. Some of them, such as one about an 8 year old girl running for her mom then dying at the finish line had many people on social media enraged. Mainly because it was an 8 year old boy who died, not a girl. A lot of people 'heard' stories and then posted them right away because they wanted to let others know, even though they weren't sure about the truth.
As a young journalist myself, I went through a lot of Twitter and Facebook posts, as well as newspaper stories and news casts before I wrote this blog post. One thing we're always told is to report the facts, and never give out false information. It sort of made me angry when watching the news last night. A group of journalists went to the White House to try and get information while it was on lockdown. Security told them they could not release information until it was confirmed and a bunch of journalists started to get very angry. Seriously? In a time of crisis, you're angry because you can't write your story? Yet people died, and hundreds are injured, but that seemed to be the last thing on their minds.
It's really sad what occurred in Boston yesterday, but a lot of people completely ignored what happened in Iraq. Explosions, car bombs, and conflict killed several people, but there was no outbreak of tweets about it. Why? Well who knows why. It is kind of sad that conflict goes on everyday, but when it's not in a big name city or town, it can sometimes slip under the crack.
Another thing we discuss quite a bit is what to post and what is too gory or wrong or unethical. Clearly there were cameras at the finish line before they knew about the bombs, because this is such a big event. So stories were being worked on all day by various news stations. One camera, which I saw footage from, ran straight to where the smoke was coming from. You could hear him saying "oh God, oh God" several times as he didn't know which direction to go.
I feel like it takes a lot of practice and a lot of experience to decide what you should and shouldn't air. In a moment like that, you have only seconds to decide what you should film, or if you should just run. Clearly, this reporter had mixed feelings but he felt that he needed to get some footage. What amazed me was seeing bystanders rip through fences and gates to get to the people who needed medical help. It's unbelievable that in a time of crisis how quickly people react.
Now clearly I wasn't there. But there were a lot of fake stories I heard which I think is kind of sad. Once something spreads through social media, it's hard to stop it until someone finally realizes it's not real. That would be one downside to having social media at an instant access. We take advantage of it, and we forget that the truth isn't always online.
I posted a few links that I came across yesterday. Warning, photos and footage are very graphic. I pray for the victims who are suffering, for families who lost loved ones, and for those who were just impacted in general by these tragedies yesterday. #PrayforBoston #PrayforIraq
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/jfk-library-explosion-boston-bombing_n_3087446.html#slide=more292101
http://www.voanews.com/content/car-bombs-kill-5-in-iraq/1642280.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=046MuD1pYJg
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