Tweetquake

Last Tuesday, there was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in… where?  Virginia?  Do they have earthquakes there?

An earthquake in Virginia, which was felt all along the US’s eastern seaboard and up into Ontario, is quite an unlikely event.  Therefore, it got quite a bit of attention on Twitter.  What is remarkable here is how much faster Twitter was at reporting the earthquake than a reputable news source was.



The first tweets regarding the quake appeared about ten seconds after it was felt.  The local news channels carried reports about five minutes later.  Maybe five minutes doesn’t make such a big difference, but to put it in other words, it took the pros 29 times longer than the tweeps.

Of course, there is a trade-off here.  The pros are obligated to fact check, and have a professional (in this case, a seismologist) confirm that the story is indeed accurate.  The report must then be written in a coherent manner and presented professionally.  By contrast, a tweet need only be “Dude!  Did we just have an earthquake?”

Professional broadcasters are bound by the rules of accuracy (necessary) and formal presentation (arguably unnecessary).  That’s one thing to keep in mind when keeping up on the news – or trying to distribute it.

Because many of my friends and I are progeeks, we must often promote our creations.  However, links to blogs, webcomics, and YouTube videos are lucky to get a retweet or two.  They are buried in the average Twitter feed, as Twitter is a noisy place that only repeats itself when a large-scale occurrence gets everyone’s attention.

So what is a progeek to do?  If you’re less noticeable than an earthquake, then maybe Twitter isn’t your first move.

-Tamara Hecht

  • Xander

    http://xkcd.com/723/
    You’re free to look up nbcwashington.com to see how ‘professional’ the ‘pros’ were. Admittedly they tend to be fairly laid back at that station but they were mostly reporting their own experiences, not interviews with experts(or as they call them in Virginia, United States Geological Survey (USGS)).
    And comparing a random person’s ability to be heard on Twitter to a natural disaster that can cause personal and financial injury is possibly the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/tamara126 Tamara Hecht

    Hey Xander,
    This is actually the first of a series about a “random person’s ability to be heard on…” (various social media). The point is comparing news about something only one person cares about to news about something many people care about. I chose the earthquake as it was a recent example. My apologies if you suffered in this earthquake and found my reference to it offensive.
    By the way, if this blog post is the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard, I guess you don’t listen to pop music. :)