Word spreads fast on Internet

Message boards change the way news of a tragedy is communicated

By ROBIN NALEPA - rnalepa@thestate.com

Long before law enforcement officers or University of South Carolina officials made public statements, the story of the tragic house fire in Ocean Isle Beach unfolded on message boards and social networking sites — post by post.

A few names of those who were killed.

The name of a high school that some of the victims might have graduated from.

Details of a harrowing escape from a third-floor window.

Prayers and condolences offered.

Online messaging has become the new way for people to get of-the-moment information in times of tragedy, as well as a place to congregate to offer one another support.

“How perfectly horrible! God bless those students, their families and friends,” read one post at thestate.com.

The information is fast, and not always right.

A 2 p.m. Sunday someone posted on a television station’s community messaging site that “9 people died in the fire.”

University officials later reported seven people were confirmed dead, six from USC and one from Clemson.

Doug Fisher, an expert in convergent journalism and an instructor at USC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said communities are no longer reliant on traditional media as their sole source of information.

“We kid ourselves that the information wouldn’t get out before the coroner released it,” Fisher said.

The way people get their information has changed, and the information sharing and gathering on sites will continue to grow, he said. “There are so many inputs to the Internet, it’s practically infinite.”

The traditional media is no longer the gatekeeper to the information, but the guide, Fisher said.

One benefit of this phenomenon is how a community can act quickly and come together to help those in need, Fisher said.

On the social networking site facebook.com, friends posted messages of encouragement to one survivor on his page Sunday evening. Though the general public could not see the postings or post to the page, hundreds of people in the young man’s network of friends could.

On other sites people asked pointed questions about details of the tragedy. Others responded kindly and not so kindly to such requests, but in most cases with information.

This is where Fisher said journalists remain relevant in reporting the context of a tragedy — not just names or random facts, but reporting and sharing in a broader sense who the people are.

“There is so much raw information out there, it isn’t hard to get the raw information,” he said. “The question is what does it mean.”

Reach Nalepa at (803) 771-8507.