Everyone is a Media outlet Twitter

The readings of Clay Shirky’s Everyone’s a Media Outlet, was a very interesting topic.  Shirky states that, “control over the media is less completely in the hands of the professionals.”  Shirky sees that the mass movement of news online through social media such as blogs, Twitter, and Facebook on the  “web created a new ecosystem.”  Shirky argues that due to the information on the web that; “news can break into public consciousness without the traditional press weighing in. Indeed, the news media can end up covering the story because something has broken into public consciousness via other means.” 

            Shirky provides us with the example of Trent Lott, who received negative press coverage following comments regarding hiss support of Strom Thurmond.  While this may not seem unusual the fact was that the story was first spread online, if not for this the corporate media may have never picked the story up.  This clearly shows the impact of amateur journalists in creating and spreading news.  In fact, not only do they spread news, but sometimes web users can capture images of news stories before the press.  Social media outlets provide anyone who witnesses an event with a smartphone to capture images and tweet, upload to facebook, or blog about them. 

            Such is the case of the Hudson River crash in 2009. This happened when the plane struck a flock of geese, lost power in both engines, and was forced to make a crash landing in the Hudson River. This became known as the Miracle on the Hudson, and thrust Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger into the national spotlight for his safe landing.  When the plane crashed within four minutes someone had tweeted about how they had witnessed the crash.  This was done fifteen minutes before the mainstream media had even heard of the story.  This upholds Shiry’s argument showing that everyone has the possibility to become a news outlet even beating the traditional press to the story.  Although it doesn’t stop with just breaking the story, soon after the first tweet many photos were uploaded to twitter showing the miraculous landing.  These images were circulated through blogs and played on national news media that used both photos and videos of the crash when covering the story. This upholds Shirky's ideas of mainstream media covering topics that have originated in other places than traditional media.  Shirky claim of the web creating a new ecosystem is also proven in this example.  The ability to quickly capture events as they unfold has placed more power in the hands of the amateurs and also has allowed for a new way for stories to be brought to the attention of the world.