The First 20 Minutes
While smoke rose from the finish line and first responders frantically attended to any injuries, witnesses were panicking about the cause of the explosions. The panic quickly escalated into terror as rumors of a terrorist attack spread. A study by Cassa, Chunara, Mandl & Brownstein looked at some of the tweets sent out during the first 20 minutes after the bombing.
With cellphone network unavailable in the Marathon area, many turned to social media as a way of sharing second-by-second updates. Twitter, as a platform for sharing short and instant messages, proved to be a powerful source of information dissemination. Almost all of the tweets I found when looking at the first hour following the bombing were spreading information on the attacks. Some include: “14:52 : MCI BOSTON, MA – 71 BOYLSTON ST : LARGE EXPLOSION REPORTED WITH 50 TO 60 PEOPLE DOWN WI… Read more at bit.ly/15gj9C9” (@newenglandfiren) and “BREAKING: Per our man on the ground at the Boston Marathon, @tooblackdogs, there was an explosion. More to follow.” (@KRKO1380).
Others quickly spread the immediate photos and videos that were released, such as this video released by the Boston Globe:
A study by the Pew Research Center revealed that 56% of young adults (or 26% of Americans total) kept up with the Boston Marathon bombings through social media sites, and 63% of Americans said they followed the tragedy very closely- making it one of the biggest news stories since 2001.
Social media proved to be a valuable tool in quickly and efficiently spreading information about the bombings to all corners of the earth. Soon enough, millions of tweets were sent out in support of the bombing victims, and #prayforboston rose to the top of Twitter’s “Trending Topics” list. We’ll look more at the massive impact the bombing had on social media, and how this affects disaster response in the next few pages.
Sources
1. http://currents.plos.org/disasters/article/twitter-as-a-sentinel-in-emergency-situations-lessons-from-the-boston-marathon-explosions/
2. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/04/23/social-media-boston-marathon-bombings/2106701/