Social Media Scoops Network TV Coverage

In the midst of the tumultuous unrest in Egypt, millions of people around the world turned to social media to follow the fast moving news developments. They tracked the unfolding drama on a host of Internet sites offering often dramatic original coverage not found in traditional news media.

Social media also played a key role in fueling the simmering revolt. As one Cairo activist recounted, "We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world."

This same theme has been repeated in recent weeks as budding revolutions have sprung up throughout the Middle East. Not too many years ago, the mainstream news media, particularly U. S. network television, would have dominated coverage of the events because of its immediacy and pervasiveness.

However, mainstream television has lost most of its edge in those two critical areas. Social media is far more accessible, a blending of technology and human interaction, that stretches as far as the reach of the Internet's global tentacles.

The range of social media is only eclipsed by its burgeoning mass appeal. Social media usage increased a staggering 100 percent in 2010. As one measure of this tidal wave, social media now accounts for 22 percent of the time people spend online and its growing.

As far as immediacy, social networking has virtually millions of news correspondents armed with mobile phones and video cameras who are disseminating photos, news and commentary instantaneously as events unfold. Even with all its millions of dollars in high-tech equipment and human resources, the bloated network television news bureaus are often scooped by social media.

For instance, during the Egyptian crisis, the hidebound news organizations often ran amateur video of protests or quoted commentary posted on Twitter because their own camera people and correspondents could not keep pace with the fast breaking events. Walter Cronkite must be doing somersaults in his grave.

The bureaucratic organizations of network television outlets hamstring their ability to move as quickly as breaking events. In contrast to the traditional media's centralized production and dissemination model, social media's decentralization allows it to reach the masses faster with fresher content.

Yet most in the mainstream media look down their pointy noses at social media. The network news moguls sniff and scold social media for being unprofessional, inaccurate, biased and dishonest. The problem is those same things have been documented about today's mainstream media.

Reporters and editors in recent years have been fired at the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today for duping readers with fabricated stories. Network television has been prone to the same kind of shabby reporting, but usually glosses over its mistakes rather than offering a public airing of its dirty laundry.

If you need further proof of social media's rise as a news source, the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan provide clear evidence. Some of the most compelling video footage that has surfaced was captured on mobile phones by ordinary citizens, running rings around that country's vibrant television news industry.

The future looks even brighter for social media. Internet forums, web blogs, interactive networks, podcasts and other forms of social media are multiplying daily. In stark contrast, the lumbering American television networks are shrinking as they reduce force, lower operating costs and trim the amount of air time devoted to news.

As a result, the gap between social media and mainstream media will continue to widen. That means millions more people will increasingly rely on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, My Space and others, for their news. If current trends continue, it will doom television network news to irrelevance.