Social Media Plays Large Role In Aftermath of Boston Marathon Bombing
LU STOUT: Now let's return to our top story, the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. And we want to examine the role of social media now. As in other disasters it broke the news. Word of a large explosion first started circulating on Twitter. Now CNN and other media organizations quoted the Boston Marathon's Facebook page which said two bombs exploded near the finish line. Now social media was also used by authorities to spread information. In fact, the Boston Police Department used its Twitter account to give updates on the situation. It also put out this call for video and for tips. Now the FBI is in the lead in the investigation. And among other things, it is looking to images posted online for clues about the attackers. Let's bring in our regular contributor Nicholas Thompson. He is the editor of the New Yorker.com. And Nick, take us back to earlier this week, just how did the initial news of the Boston Marathon bombings play out on social media?</s>NICK THOMPSON, NEW YORKER.COM: Well, it starts out on Twitter, right, about a minute after the bombs hit, the first tweets, they start getting retweeted and then two minutes, within four minutes everybody knows about it. Anybody who is near anybody with a Twitter account here's something, "oh my god, bombs have gone off in Boston." And of course because news -- you know, inaccurate news, or false news, breaks off, and on Twitter your first reaction is wait, maybe that's not true. It's Twitter, so there's the chance this is false. But gradually you get the sense and then it starts spreading through other social media platforms. And then Facebook plays an extremely important role, because it becomes the easiest way for people who were running the race or watching the race who were OK to tell all their friends and family instead of having to call 100 people, you just post something on your Facebook page. So Facebook became this sort of wonderful method of letting people know you were safe.</s>LU STOUT: You know, these days everyone is pretty savvy about social media and breaking news on social media, because we know that social media can often spread misinformation, especially after a disaster. We saw that after Sandy last year. But how much of that did we see after the Boston attack?</s>THOMPSON: I actually think there was a real sign of social media maturation during this crisis. There was far less misinformation spreading on social media, there were far fewer rumors. I mean, there were panics. There was a sudden panic about unexploded devices. And there were panics about other things going off, and terrible things happening. There was, you know, some misinformation about the cellphone network in Boston. But, really, it was actually pretty good. I think people are getting better at knowing what to tweet and who to retweet, sort of the self correcting mechanisms of Twitter whereby the people who are putting out false information or inaccurate information or unverified information aren't getting as much play and aren't getting as much amplification as they did during past crises.</s>LU STOUT: It's interesting to hear that the medium is maturing in this regard. Now let's talk about the hashtag #prayforBoston. It was one way for people to pay tribute to the victims on Twitter. Can social media, though, really bring people together during times of disaster and crisis?</s>THOMPSON: Oh, I think it absolutely can. I mean, even if it's only doing so at a superficial way, it does feel good to go onto social media and both to tweet and to say -- you know, to tweet #prayforBoston or to send your condolences or to say something moving and pithy. And then to read hundreds of these responses, it makes you feel like part of a community. One of -- a hard -- you know, in the past watching these events, these terrible things happen can lead to a real sense of isolation, but doing it on social media can bring you together even if you're not actually doing anything, even if you're not giving blood, even if you're far away, even if you're not helping someone at the finish line you feel like you're part of it and it helps you process it in a way.</s>LU STOUT: OK. And one final question for you. You wrote a piece for the New Yorker about the meaning of the Boston Marathon and why it was targeted. And by writing that piece, you met a runner who was pictured in a photograph above your article. We'll show the photograph of her. Her name is Emily Locker. And tell us about this incredible story involving her.</s>THOMPSON: So I wrote this story. And I said, look, the amazing thing about the Boston Marathon is it's this spectacle. These people run at, you know, less than five minutes per mile for 26 miles. But it's also this very prosaic thing, this normal thing that regular people run. It happens on the streets of Boston, the streets that everybody who knows the city know. So it's a spectacle, but it's taking place in a very familiar place. And every runner has a story. And above that post, we put a picture of this woman. And then the next day she emailed me and said, so I'm the woman in the picture. And she and I talked on the phone. It turns out she has an incredible story. She was a runner for a long time. Her husband running for a long time. And then she came down with breast cancer. She had a double elected mastectomy. And she had intense chemotherapy. But each time that she went through chemotherapy she ran a little bit, even if it was only a mile, even if it was slowly. She wanted to be able to get back out there to run again, to run another marathon. And this was the marathon that she was going to run. If you look at the picture, you can see that she has her hair is just a little bit tied back behind her head. And she said it was very moving for her, it was the first time since the chemotherapy that she had enough hair on her head that she could tie it. And, you know, she's wearing her lucky purple shoes which she felt that would bring her, you know, some good karma in this race. You can see she's walking kind of against the stream of the runners. She's been stopped. She got to the point where all the runners were stopped on Commonwealth Avenue and she's walking backwards looking for a friend. She's not sure what's going on. She's a little bit cold. So it was a very moving picture. And to an extent I had no idea when I wrote that initial post and when we put that on New Yorker.com.</s>LU STOUT: Yeah, I'm so happy that she reached out to you and you shared the story to your audience and international audience through your column. And incredible story of survival and what the human spirit is really capable of. Nick Thompson of New Yorker.com thank you so much and take care.</s>THOMPSON: Thank you, Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: Now, on our website you can find five viral stories about the Boston attacks. In fact, CNN.com's Doug Gross, he debunks them one by one. Not to be missed. You want to check it out. CNN.com. Now you're watching News Stream. And still ahead, remembering the victims. Family and friends of the people killed in the Boston Marathon bombings talked to us about their loved one.