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| The tweet that first broke the news of Osama Bin Laden's death in 2011. |
Twitter is one of the world’s largest social networking sites, connecting over 288 million active members. With just one search of a keyword, these members can view tweets from anyone on the planet, from Australia to Zimbabwe. Because of this, Twitter users are connected to everything that is happening in the world. With this constant connection to the world, Twitter has rapidly become the most common source of breaking news.
Twitter has taken over traditional methods, such as newspapers and television, of breaking news
As
the calendar turned from 2010 to 2011, a report from Mashable revealed that,
for the first time in history, more people were getting their news from the
Internet compared to newspapers. Print newspapers are a dying breed; in fact, many companies such as the New York Times and the Washington Post have online newspapers that allow quicker, more convenient access. This takeover is a result of how quickly one can access new information. With print newspapers, the public has to wait until the morning after an event to read about and learn what has happened. But with online newspapers that update as new information is available, the public is always informed as to what is currently going on in the world. This "quickness" is the same reason why Twitter has begun to surpass online websites. On May 1st, 2011, at 10:24pm, Keith Urbahn, an aide for former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, tweeted that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. Within minutes, this tweet (pictured above) went viral. Before the major broadcasting stations such as ABC, CBS, and NBC even reported the news, 21 minutes after Urbahn's tweet, millions of people had already known. A study by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology confirm that people who broke this news on Twitter were able to convince many other Twitter users of its truth before confirmation came from mass media.
More people today prefer to receive breaking news via Twitter and other social media sites
A recent survey conducted at the University of Maryland asked college students what their most common source of breaking news was. Of all the participants, exactly half said that it was Twitter and other social media. Television news coverage and "word of mouth", two of the more traditional sources prior to the current "digital age", were the least common sources for learning breaking news at 13.9%. With the up-and-coming and younger generation using Twitter at a much higher rate than those who are older, the number of people who follow breaking news over Twitter will only increase over the next couple of years. 
52% of participants of a another recent survey conducted at UMD claimed that they followed at least one news account, such as @CNN, @WashingtonPost, etc., on their personal Twitter account. Of those who followed at least one of these accounts, 58.8% followed multiple ones. The participants in this survey were mostly college students, and the number of people who use Twitter to follow news accounts will again continue to increase as we head deeper into the "digital age" generation.When asked about how receiving breaking news information has changed over the past 5-10 years, Falan Garner, a UMD student, says it has become easier, since it is only a "refresh" away.
Many studies and first-hand accounts report that Twitter can be used to aide people that are being put in danger due to some current breaking news event
With Twitter at their fingertips, millions of people are able to access information that could potentially be life-saving. A study done by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder examines the role Twitter played in helping citizens affected by the Red River flood in 2009. During the flooding, many local cities declared states of emergencies, and many citizens were evacuated. When these warnings began to appear, many local individuals began tweeting more about flood-related issues. Some of the topics that were tweeted about include sandbagging, a way to prevent flooding, evacuation information, and other related subjects. One Twitter account, a user under the name @kathy123, lived through the 1997 Red River flood, and used her experience to help others prepare for the 2009 flood. For example, nine days before the flood, she asked people to volunteer to sandbag the Red River Valley. For the next seven days, this user continued to seek volunteers on Twitter to help the community prepare for the flood, before finally evacuating herself. Because of tweets from @kathy123 and other local Twitter users, thousands of people had quick and easy access to relevant information as soon as it was available. This was especially important because the flood disallowed people from being able to sit at home and watch the news on the television or read about it at a desk on a computer. With these citizens always on the move, Twitter became an important sources of mobile, breaking updates.
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| Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton's tweets as he walked around Baltimore amidst the rioting. |
In a recent poll, many people admitted to following an ongoing, breaking news event on Twitter. Some of the events that people followed included presidential speeches, bad weather, sporting events, the Nepal earthquake, the Malaysian Airlines plane disappearance, and the Boston Marathon bombing. However, the most common and most local response was the Baltimore Riots. During the riots, many reporters on the scene tweeted updates as to what was going on and where it was happening. As a result of these almost minutely updates, citizens of the area wishing to remain safe knew exactly where to avoid. Matt King, a student here at UMD, used Twitter to follow the Baltimore events everywhere he went because of his connection to the area.
Because it connects millions of people at a time, Twitter is one of the fastest sources of information. With our generation becoming more and more reliant on mobile devices, Twitter is quickly becoming our easiest source of breaking news.
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