Twitter to the fore in telling news

The idea that social media may replace traditional news sources in the age of Web 2.0 has never been more real. When software professional Kiran Jonnalagadda, trapped in the smoke-filled fifth floor of the Carlton Towers in Bangalore, wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter about his experience, he instantly became the primary source of information for many.

This included traditional news sources such as newspapers and television channels who were still on their way to the spot. Tweeple – twitter parlance for micro-bloggers – re-tweeted his messages about the fire, links to photographs that he was updating real-time using GPRS and witty appeals to friends to stop calling him in panic.

Mr. Jonnalagadda, who works at a start-up, Development Enable, told The Hindu that he walked out safe at around 5.30 p.m. after spending nearly an hour waiting for help. Photos he took with his mobile phone were re-tweeted extensively and even published by news sites. His twitter handle is @jackerhack.

Confirming his tweets, he said that he saw at least seven people jump out of the sixth and seventh floors in panic. Four of them simply landed on the concrete, but it was too smoky to make out. “Carlton Towers is burning and six of us are trapped inside. The fire’s above but there’s smoke everywhere. Saw people jump to their death,” he tweeted. His friends and random twitter followers wrote back conveying their best wishes.

"More stressful than the fire itself"

His regular updates on the situation included facts about how the ladder could not reach his floor, and how the entire region was swarmed with people who had gathered around the premises. Minutes after he had walked out of the site, he said over the phone: “We heard a fire alarm at around 4.30 p.m. and assumed it is one of those annoying drills. A minute later we heard there was smoke. We didn’t know where the fire was. It seemed to be coming from above us. So we pulled out the plug points and tried to run out through our door. But we couldn’t because of the thick smoke coming from our floor. We had to wait for a long time before the fire brigade came up. By then, the smoke seemed to have cleared and we rushed down the stairs.”

Of course, with little access to the survivors, he had to spend the rest of the evening taking calls from mediapersons and narrating the experience. Exhausted, he tweeted later on Tuesday night: “All this media attention is being a lot more stressful than the fire itself!”

Twitter was inundated with tweets from Bangaloreans who tweeted about the tragedy, the news reports that they were watching on television and even about traffic restrictions in and around the area.

Tweet or leave a scrap

Is e-mail, perceived as archaic and prone to spams, on its way out as net users prefer social media? Sangeetha Devi Dundoo reports

Barely a day after the release of 3 Idiots, the positive reviews were out. Only a few of them were from reviewers in the print/audio-visual and new media, analysing the pros and cons of being Rancho. Quite a bit of word-of-mouth publicity came from tweets, status messages on messengers, and scraps on Orkut and Facebook. Without much ado, thousands of Gtalk and MSN Messenger users changed their status message to ‘Aal izz well with 3 Idiots'; ‘3 Idiots is a joy ride' or simply ‘Aal izz well'. Within no time, web users had also taken the quiz, ‘Find out which 3 Idiots character are you?', and posted the result for their friends to see.

Quick communication through social networking sites has replaced the need to e-mail for many, forcing web analysts to think if e-mails would become extinct in a few years..

This may sound far fetched, but sample this: Several studies in the West predict the decline and eventual extinction of e-mails in the next decade. E-mails are considered antiquated, prone to spams and fit for the older age group.

K. Amrita, pursuing her masters in computer science, cringes at the thought of using e-mails. “I use mails only to send out resumes and other official reasons. If I have to mail someone, I put it off till a later day. I prefer Twitter, chats and Facebook to keep it simpler, faster and reach out to all my friends in a few seconds.

I don't have to think of sourcing the right e-mail id and right way of addressing the recipient,” she says. E-mail, which edged out snail mail for sheer convenience and faster communication, is beginning to be perceived as complex. Diyanat Ali, IT manager, Geodesic Ltd, sticks to e-mails for official communication and whenever attachments need to be sent. At other times, he favours social sites. “Social media channels reduce the complexity of e-mails. The messages are short and you reach more people,” he reasons. While he feels that the usage of e-mails will decline in the next decade, he doesn't see it becoming obsolete. “Social media will not kill email just like VOIP didn't kill the telephone,” he argues.

Preference of social media over e-mails changes according to the age group and the nature of communication.

You may tweet or have status messages announcing your verdict on 3 Idiots but for official or personal communication, you still turn to good old e-mails. Then, there are still those who prefer one-to-one communication that e-mail facilitates. Gayathri Santosh, a homemaker in her early 30s, discovered the joy of connecting with her school and college buddies through Facebook but is wary of the privacy it ensures. “It's fun to upload photographs, receive and send instant comments and get to know what your friends are up to. Yet, I think e-mails ensure some privacy. You cannot make all your conversations public,” she says.

Vaneeta Bhattacharyya, who facilitates body-centric workshops, chooses from mails and chats according to the nature of the communication and feels, “E-mails may take some more effort but that's where the willingness to make that effort comes in. You don't always seek instant gratification (like in social media).”