This week I followed the plane crash near Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam — not through mainstream media, but through Twitter. Although much of what people reported on Twitter merely repeated what I could read on news sites around the world, there were some interesting points.
Two eyewitnesses reported on the crash using Twitter: @nipp and @ansgarjohn. Both were immediately picked up by international sources and interviewed. One example is this BBC Channel 4 interview with Jonathan Nip (scroll down to find it) In fact, one of the eyewitnesses said he had to stop tweeting because he was constantly talking to the news media.
By following the crowd of Twitterers using the hashtag #schiphol, I quickly found Google maps of the crash, YouTube videos from eyewitnesses and photos for sale by a professional photographer who used Twitter to advertise. I also found an audio clip from the airport control tower. I later found a site offering live audio feeds from control towers around the world.
Several Dutch and Norwegian news sites also integrated Twitter streams into their articles via CoverItLive.
