Dashin' through the table

Time to take a bath now, I guess. 

5:45 a.m.

I was taking a bath when I heard an explosion down the street. When I used the zoom function of my digital eye, I hurriedly took some snapshots of the incident. Later, when I analyzed them, I saw some shadowy figures roaming around. 

Probably, I'll look into them with some of my colleagues later. 

6:30 a.m.

I'm on my way to work now and my device keeps on ringing. One peculiar thing though, that explosion across the street from where I lived just got reported, first in the net. But it seems that they still don't have any lead on the incident. The police said through their various accounts to stay alert for more possible eventuality. 

I'll keep myself posted on this. 

7:00 a.m. 

I just got inside the tube when suddenly, the coach in front of us has burst into flames. Screams for help filled the air. Then, fire has engulfed the coach I was on. it ravaged the coach quickly, unfortunately killing off dozens of people. 

Due to instincts, I grabbed an old lady and covered her for the next few minutes. Scalding heat, however, gripped my arm when I tried to run to the emergency exit. 

7:12 a.m.

The train is violently shaking. I fear that we will get ourselves thrown if ever the train got derailed. 

7:15 a.m.

The old lady I was holding on just died of a heart attack. Soon, probably it will be me who's going to die. 

7:16 a.m. 

The sensation of flying filled me. I guess you can say that everything is going to end now. 

Breaking News: A bomb has gone off inside the Metro's subway line. Authorities say that at least one train exploded, instantly killing off at least a hundred passengers. Amateur shots of the explosion was caught on camera by one of our correspondents who currently is now inside the train. 

News Update: The train crashed just outside Quezon Ave. cor. EDSA. Medical personnel are now rushing to the scene. 

Breaking News: Our correspondent is now successfully recovered from the wreck. We are now going to ask him some questions. 

"Sir, how did you survive that explosion? How many survived? What happened?'

"I don't know, I don't know." 

"The incident was recorded through your digital device, was it not?"

"Yes, I think it was. I think I streamed the whole event live through my social site." 

"Thank you, sir. back to you, studio." 

News Update: The series of explosion now called, " xx Day Bombings", was successfully covered by our brave correspondent, Mr. xxx. Through his quick reaction, everything was streamed live and thankfully, it has given the police a crack on the suspect. 

Good job! 

---

And, I guess you read all through that. Thank you for reading that crappy story. 

Anyway, I think that will be the face of journalism and social media in the future. A fast paced, information savvy environment where everything is connected, and everything can be done in mere seconds. 

Amazing isn't it? 

Let's backtrack a little bit. Let's look through the co-development of news and social media. 

Definitely, journalism was here even before the dawn of the internet. News and information was transmitted through different media like, newspapers, televisions and of course radio. 

However, the flow of information is only one-way, only the producers get to transmit their news and information to the audience. There was rarely an interaction between the two. 

But there were hardly any difference to the style of journalism then. 

What changed when social media came into the picture was simply the transmission of information from the produce to the intended audience. And this marked the difference between the traditional media and the social media. 

Instant transmission plus its ability to get shared quickly means the story can get viral in a matter of minutes. That is the advantage of social media over the other traditional media forms. 

Interaction among its audience is another factor. Humans are social animals, right? Therefore, through discussions, a viewpoint on one issue to the next can be heard from everyone who joined in the fun. 

That's why fora and Facebook and Twitter plug-ins on news sites got so popular. 

Personalizing news and articles according to one's interest got so popular due to social media. Now, news articles are being produced for specific markets. This is quite different to the usual mass-oriented view of journalism. 

But what's the catch? 

Instant transmission means a rise in the frequency of mistakes. Rivalry and competition among news organizations tighten, with everyone wanting to have an exclusive - an elusive scoop that can move mountains, now worlds apart. 

Just like what happened with the Rappler and its reporter, Lean Santos. With his desire to have a story, he overlooked his journalistic principles and committed a taboo in the industry. he plagiarized a story from Interaksyon's reporter, Ben Arnold de Vera. 

But still, thanks to social media, his wrongdoings got scrutinized which forced Rappler to apologize. 

Sensationalism probably is probably another bad offset of having fast transmission of information. 

With the desire to sell, we now feast on everything, no matter how trivial just like Claudine, ehem, Raymart, and Tulfo's fight in NAIA, or just like the Amalayer video. 

Truthfully, this videos or events are not really of national importance but just because they'll sell, they get to the limelight, thanks to social media. 

But what shall we do? 

We now hold a great responsibility in curating this wonderful technology for journalism's future development/ 

We should not let social media get ahead of us, but rather, we should control it and use it for the betterment of journalism.