Role of Social Media in Mumbai terror attacks

‘mum’-‘ba’-‘aai’

The words ‘mum’ in English language refer to mother, ‘ba’ in Gujarati means mother and so does ‘aai’ in Marathi.

The entire nation was taken by surprise and so was the world. A group of 10 cowards who came and killed innocent people on the roads of that fateful night of 26th November 2008 in Mumbai.

Innocent lives gone, terror looming large  on the streets, fear was the only thing in people’s minds and gloom was written large on the faces. Everything came to a screeching halt. There was silence and there was frantic activity all around in those endless hours.

I was sitting here in Delhi, following the proceedings on Internet and not even a single second was I able to take my eyes off.

Every single incident, each piece of news trickling down was making waves. Information from any source was of utmost importance.

I was glued and all that mattered to me in those hours was that I be updated with information. And what mattered to me in those hours was how I could pass on this information in a manner that it reaches the right people whoa are in need and it reaches the widest possible audience in the shortest possible time.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that internet is the answer to all my questions.

As I logged onto the various social media networks I saw that thousands of people like me who probably sitting miles away were thinking the same thing, were going through similar emotions and were doing the same stuff, that is passing on the information.

Social Media to the rescue? Where did all the information come from?
Slideshare, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, some of the most major Social Media networks already had content which spoke tones about what was happening in Mumbai. Pictures which probably were being missed on TV, were readily available on these platforms and lakhs of concerned citizens were sharing information like never before.

I had the news even before the TV channels!!
Sitting here in Delhi, I had access to LIVE news updates on twitter (thanks to all the people) even before the news channels, at times! Was all this news of any help? Much help!

Yes! I could retweet and send the information to other networks and people connected with me could get their hands on the information much sooner, and probably it could have made a difference to someone’s life who was looking for all the information.

A simple act of giving away the relevant contact numbers of various city hospitals and other emergency numbers did make a huge difference.

Give me numbers? What’s the proof?
Well, in just 3 days of the attacks I said enough of it. Everyone around is in anger. All reporting the same thing. All doling out tones of news items, there is blood of the common man strewn all around. Who speaks of peace?

WE DO!

OMLogic consulting became the first message creator and the initiative taker of peace all around. It was important to let people know that we have through such horrific acts of terror in the past as well and we have stood the test of time. Hence we decided to take up peace and in less than 4 days, post the attacks our message in the form of the presentation uploaded on Slideshare, got 250+ views and multiple favorites.
The point here is not propagating our deed, but to emphasize the power of Social Media.

Its about taking an entrepreneurial stand and doing your bit in time for the millions of eyes who are waiting for any news to reach them.

Think about people who could not be there in Mumbai and had there relatives, their kids, their parents staying there. Apart from cell phones how could have they been informed about what is happening. Half baked information always boosts the panic. And so came in Social media, with concerned common man like you and me, who pushed in with information. Information which he felt could help many others out.

Twitter

• More than 80 tweets about the Mumbai carnage were adding up to Twitter every 5 seconds! – CNN

• Results Mumbai -

Roughly a 1000 tweets per hour

Wikipedia

• Almost in an hours time from the Mumbai carnage initiation Wiki had an entire pag dedicated to the November 2008 Mumbai attacks

Slideshare

• Over 20+ presentations that appear on searching only the word ‘mumbai’ on slideshare on the first two pages.

YouTube

We talk about TRPs of news channels shooting up, well take this…

• 1 week ago on YouTube a video uploaded by the title “Mumbai Gunman’s arrest caught On Camera” has clocked 45,083 views!

Flickr
Users of this photo sharing site have uploaded 300+ pictures clicked by them, freezing the moments as they were happening.

This is the power of Social Media!!

As we are moving towards a more connected world, we all are affected, we all feel each other closely. We move when our emotions are moved. We hold, we help, we talk and we cry and we laugh.

Now that its over its time for us to build things up back together…lets join hands, and what better way to connect than the internet?