At the beginning of this past week, our country experienced a horrific terrorist attack. The bombings had a significant impact on our country, but looking back on it we can learn a lot of things. The bombings in Boston gave us our first look at how social media can impact live events. News of the Boston bombings spread like wildfire over social media, but the biggest impact was seen in the hours following the event. Hundreds and thousands of people began posting their pictures and videos from the event on social platforms. There was a huge influx of all things Boston Bombings. Many people began trying to find where the bombs were and who put them there. Platforms like Reddit had threads completely dedicated to crowdsourcing an investigation to find the bombers. This was both good and bad in the eyes of the Police. It produced a lot of evidence that could be used to help put the day together, but it also caused people to begin suspecting people who were in the video. Police have stated they released the pictures of the suspects because of all of the false accusations and conclusions.
Social media and crowdsourcing can be a huge help in many situations, but it may not be perfect for every situation. In times like this, we must rely upon those who have the training and background to do their jobs. The amount of pictures and posts about the event were a huge help in creating an evidence trail, but speculation needed to stop. Without the popularity of social media, there may not have been as many pictures and videos that ended up as evidence. It also would have made it difficult for people to get the word out to their friends and neighbors about the bombings as well as the manhunt. Social media became a quick and effective way for the police and authorities to spread the word to as many people as possible. It will be interesting to see how this situation may be used as a case study in handling traumatic events on social media in regards to crowdsourcing, news dissemination, and event management.
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