Four hours ago the news of a possible stabbing incident/hostage situation at Nottingham Trent University Clifton campus library started to emerge on Facebook and Twitter. 
The big tweet that kicked it all off
I then wanted to keep up to date with any developments so started to follow the situation realtime through Google. This was done by using some keywords to narrow the search.
Within an hour of it hitting Twitter @FlyFM_News were on it! Various tweets from a collection of tweeters then followed as the real details emerged of the situation.
This then resulted in a full press release from the Nottinghamshire Police to clarify on what actually happened.
Due to students using Twitter and Facebook the news was 'escalated' but it also reminded me of a story I came across about five journalists planning on locking themselves away in a French farmhouse with access only to Facebook and Twitter to test the quality of news from the social networking and micro-blogging sites. This was back in January 2010.
Unfortunately I couldn't find any outcome to the experiment either.
I then stumbled upon this interesting article that referred to the French experiment as 'flawed' and highlighting that social media is a conversation, not a newswire.
To add to that, tonight I've seen an interesting side to news and Twitter. Although you can get one off tweets that people could start taking as fact, you also have the conversation that develops from that which brings out more clarity to the situation. In hearing murmurs of a shooting, stabbing, kidnapping or any sort of situation you can always rely on journalists, which in this case were our very own Fly FM team, that are ready to explore the credibility of the initial statement.
For me tonight has highlighted the power that one tweet can have in sparking conversation, but it has also highlighted the importance of testing the credibility of statements before taking them as fact. Within 3 hours a short tweet gets put straight by a Police statement. A crazy night for news through social media.
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