Journalists use Twitter as a tool to report Marikana massacre
The heart-aching event that unfolded in “Marikana” left many traumatized and pained where numerous miners were shot dead by the police whom many believed they would have protected them. At the vantage point of the story hungry journalists swiftly informed the masses of predicament. Some Journalists were not at the scene yet they managed to unearth factual information pertaining to the event. The three journalists I have chosen went extra mile in tweeting more about developments of story in Marikana.
Verashni Pillay (@verashni), Deputy Editor for Mail & Guardian, tweeted about the situation as it unfolds by even asking from her followers if there is anything they would like to know about the situation in Marikana. Verashni and her team reported live at Marikana as they made live-blog video about the shootings. I think what she left out though is how did the story break out and what led to the shooting of miners. What intrigued me about Verashni is immediately after the story was unfolded; she used twitter as a tool to inform people about the whole situation in Marikana.
People received a lot of information from twitter before stories were written about Marikana massacre. Nickolaus Bauer, SAfm host, on the other hand focused on different angle about President Jacob Zuma’s return from Mozambique where he attended the Summit. Bauer tweeted about Zuma’s shock following the massacre in Marikana. I also think Bauer did not delve deeper into the shooting – he only focused on President Zuma’s return, which I think it’s good reporting because people expected reaction from the President per se.
Hajra Omarjee, eNCA reporter, tweeted about the story in detail as she even went to an extent of tweeting the Youtube link regarding the shootings in Marikana. Hajra Omarjee proved how important twitter is in terms of news reporting. She tweeted about a lot about the shootings in Lonmin since the story was broke out by eNCA. She managed to get enough information regarding the predicament in Marikana – and used it to the benefit of the public by disseminating information to the public. The massacre in Marikana trended first on twitter before going public, which is something many journalists do.
All journalists keep up to technological innovations, particularly new media where news break out on twitter on Facebook. New Media has become a modern way of disseminating necessary information to the society even the voiceless. It provides a platform wherein citizens and people from walks of life can interact and exchange resourceful ideas in terms of moving forward as a world. All these three journalists i have chosen have covered and tweeted Marikana massacre to their level best, and had fed the society with the most important information they needed to know.
