Twittering away

Asteris Masouras writes in New Europe:

First it was the terrorist assault on Mumbai, lasting three days last November, that generated international interest and saw Twitter used by the predominantly English-speaking Mumbaikars and several media organizations to report on the attacks. Its effect was so pivotal that a false rumor about the Indian government requesting “radio silence” on Twitter was carried by the BBC, to be quickly quashed by fact-checking citizen journalists.

Then, in early December, extensive riots broke out in Greek cities after the slaying of a teenager by police in Athens, and Twitter was used to break the language barrier, as international media were monitoring the #griots hashtag coined by users to report on the protests. Collaborative citizen journalism projects, like Global Voices Online, NowPublic, allvoices and CNN's own iReport, also coming into their own in 2008, were used to crowdsource original reports, using the abundance of multimedia and textual information emerging from the riots.

THEN CAME GAZA

Then, in late December, the Israeli offensive in Gaza caught the world mostly unaware, coinciding as it did with the holiday season, but also due to the media blackout placed in Gaza several months in advance. The camaraderie surrounding previous uses of social media in times of strife seemed to break down, as they were now being used to report on a traditionally inflamed conflict, couched in extreme political viewpoints and riddled with human rights violations. Israel made no secret of its intent to use social media as weapons in the electronic war waged alongside the conflict on the ground. Simultaneously with the launch of the ground offensive, its Consulate General in New York held a press conference on Twitter and the IDF launched a YouTube channel to provide footage from aerial and ground attacks.