24/7 for traditional outlets

This Saturday evening, there was a report of a car bomb in Times Square in Manhattan. The report I saw first on this story was from Twitter, of course. The post on Twitter included a criticism of traditional media outlets for not covering the story right away. The fact is, Twitter can just cover a story quicker than any other outlet. It's instantaneous.

I think news organizations are far too set in their ways to be able to adapt to the new media tools we have at the moment. They have their set schedule, especially on the weekend when there is fewer staff on hand. They are going to stick to that schedule unless, of course, a significant breaking story happens. But the broadcast side of these organizations aren't yet prepared for the constant news (and sometimes breaking news) stream on Twitter, in my opinion.

There usually aren't too many critical breaking news stories that happen on Saturday evenings, but news is certainly on no kind of schedule. Organizations must be aware of this and have staff on hand at all times to break in at important times like this. It's critical, especially in a large population area like Manhattan, that people have information as quickly as possible. Organizations must be able to compete with Twitter and be able to confirm the real story.