HERE’S an interesting entry from my erstwhile fellow CNET Asia tech blogger (before I gave up the gig to concentrate on managing INQUIRER.net’s blog network and my other responsibilities as gaming and multimedia editor) Ignatius Javellana, who wrote about the news coverage of the Glorietta 2 blast by both mainstream media and citizen journalists.
Excerpt:
It’s this type of speed and efficiency that frightens me. For one thing, back in the day, when events such as these would occur, it would take a while for actual coverage of the event to even reach those who would probably be only a few blocks away. Take the first EDSA Revolution back in 1986—I was still a kid then but it took hours for people to mobilize, and for the news to reach us. But when it happened again in 2001, within minutes I received an SMS and Inquirer.net (then Inq7.net) already had it on their headline. Because technology affords us this speed and efficiency—wireless connectivity, portable digital cameras, 3G cellphones and more—any newsworthy event can be broadcast in seconds.
And because of the growing popularity of blogging among Filipinos, news of this latest terrible event spread like wildfire. Already within an hour there were hundreds of blogs writing about the explosion, all with their own speculations and theories as to what happened. Hundreds of photos of the carnage were being sent over email, posted on photo blogs. And even better, actual, first-hand accounts of the incident began to spring up—from people who were right there when it happened to people who knew other people that were there even to people at the emergency room of the Makati Medical Center where most of the victims of the explosion were brought. And to think this happened during the afternoon, during a time when loads of people are still online, getting updates from friends’ and friends of friends’ blogs.
My friend Azrael was one such person. Within an hour of the explosion, he was watching the news and already posting images he’d taken from ANC on his blog. An hour after that, another guy on Multiply started talking about his first hand experience of the explosion, even posting images he’d taken himself while he was there.
Indeed, news travels with blinding speed in the age of online media and citizen journalism — and so does fear.
The Chinese have a curse: May you live in interesting times. We’re living in that kind of world right now.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
thess: on trillanes
hindi purket binoto siya ng milyones eh tama na lahat at sinabi niya, ano siya, diyos diyosan ninyo……….
kung ayaw mo mapulaan ang idol mo, dapat pag aralan niyang mabuti ang kanyang mga statements, isa na siyang senador eh puro tsimis at political statements ang kanyang pinag gagawa, dapat he should speak ang act as a senator, remember tanada, diokno, ninoy……….
ano ba mali sa statements ko tungkol kay trillanes, ipapaliwanag ko sa iyo para maintindihan mo……..
mulat na mulat nga ako kaya hindi ko binoto si trillanes, sana mamulat din kayo na nadenggoy kayo ni trillanes…….
tignan mo tahimik si trillanes kung ilang araw na, butata, wala siyang ebidensya………
baka sabihin niya na si gma ang tunay na leader ng oakwood, maniwala nama kayo, he..he….he……………….
October 28th, 2007 at 5:22 am
mr. clipmaster, wag kang magbulag-bulagan o sadya lang bulag ka talaga.wag c trillanes pag-initan mo!di mo pala cya ibinoto, good for you but how about ung milliones na mga pilipino na bumoto sa kanya????
October 24th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
it’s an enlightening issue to those people na naniniwala kay TRILLANES.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:47 am
they say maintenance had to replace a pump somewhere in the basement days before the blast…..hmmmm..and a submersible at that….hmmmmmm.could it be it had a timer?….. and an ignition device to fuse with the gases inside?….just wonderin……
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:25 pm
thanks for sharing the article and linking my blog post and photos about it.
truth is.. i was in the mode of panic while i took those screen caps and video fro my TV
and thanks for the technology that I received the news from a friend via YM
and then got a quick chance to post it right away and mass send it just to warn my friends and people i know in my network.
it was very helpful for those blog readers because some of them is in the office at work with no TV or radio, but they got YM and internet.
news was delivered smoothly and after that they became aware of the incident.