Tiger Woods car crash another victory for Twitter
Tiger Woods was involved in a car accident earlier today. Preliminary reports suggested he was admitted in a serious condition, but that has proven to be slightly over-dramatic. He’s actually fine and sustained minor cuts and bruises. However, the big issue is how his news was reported, and how social media once again beat the traditional news outlets to the story.
Twitter, along with other social media outlets such as Facebook and MySpace, has become as essential to the distribution of news as any newspaper, TV station, or news channel. The Web is already squeezing the life out of the newspaper industry, because who needs to pay money to read news that’s already a day out of date when the Internet offers everything for free Until Rupert Murdoch gets his way) and bang up-to-date.
You only have to look at the death of Michael Jackson earlier this year. TMZ broke the news that Jackson was in poor health hours before the traditional media would touch it. The celebrity news site risked getting the news slightly wrong but actually managed to scoop a huge breaking story.
Twitter has been at the forefront of many such breaking news stories in recent months. And the latest is the car accident involving golfer Tiger Woods.
Early reports suggested Woods had hit a fire hydrant and a tree near his Florida home. And as noted by TechCrunch, while traditional media was still sitting on the story, the @breakingnews Twitter feed had broken the news. Other people began retweeting the news and the story was all over Twitter before the likes of CNN had even reported it.
Twitter wins again. However, the only slight problem is the news was slightly incorrect. Rather than being in a serious condition, Tiger Woods was treated for cuts and bruises before being released from hospital.
So, by all means use social networking sites as a source for news – they are often light years ahead of traditional media. But part of that is because traditional media organizations like to get their facts 100 percent correct (well, maybe 95 percent) before publishing. It therefore comes down to whether you value speed or accuracy in your news.
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November 27th, 2009
Why am I not surprised YOU think its okay to “report” incorrect news and count that as a “win” for twitter over other media? Oh, wait, you had to submit an article so you regurgitate ANOTHER TechCrunch story. Can you write ANYTHING original?
November 28th, 2009
OK so he cheats on his wife and family and then gets in a big fight with his wife over it and then crashes his new car into a fire hydrant and tree and passes out and the wife smashes the window with of all things a golf club of his. Now tell me this is not perfect Karma. He even cuts his upper and lower lips, and blood comes out of his mouth like the lies he told his wife. Or his cut lips he kissed his mistress (Rachel Uchitel) with. The Tiger is just a Cub to me now, not much of a man to two time his soul mate. Do we see divorce coming next? For SURE! He will hit another hole in one soon being such a superstar.
December 3rd, 2009
Still trying to figure out why they waited so long to give him a ticket. If it had been one of us how long do you think we would have had to talk to the police? Just because he plays golf and is a “role” model, why does that make him above the law?
December 14th, 2009
Regardless of the opinions on Tiger Woods himself, I think you’ve hit the news reporting trend nail right on the head, even in areas besides golf. For quick bits and play-by-play gossip, Twitter and Facebook, as well as numerous blogs, are dominating the industry left and right due to an instant-gratification feed. But for timely, professional research — that’s where print media will have a chance to shine. Anyone can post a news tip… not just anyone can be believable.