Kirk Franklin caught in Riots in Kampala UgandaSeptember 11th, 2009
By Angela Benton, BlackWeb20.com
If you are surprised by the headline of this story you may not be the only one. Currently there are riots in Kampala Uganda and local newsources that would typically provide information to people caught in the mix are literally halted…atleast on the web. The Independent, a local Ugandan newsource, apparently is down because so many people are looking to it for information. They are communicating via Twitter In this day in age that shouldn’t be an issue right? Especially with so many people relying on Twitter as a source for information similar to a newswire. The main problem with that is information generally has to trend high enough to be distributed to masses on the platform. In this instance it hasn’t. Hundreds if not thousands of people (in Kampala and in the US who may have family there) literally have no idea what is going on from the ground. You are probably thinking that mainstream media has surely covered this in World News. No dice. Of course as far at the US is concerned it is September 11th so most coverage today has been focused on that. However, there is no mention of riots in Kampala on CNN.com which is often dubbed as the “King of News Media using Social Media.” MSNBC.com does have coverage in their world section. Most coverage is coming from the BBC and The Guardian (as seen from Google News). What has resulted is a handful of citizen journalist, one of who includes Gospel Singer Kirk Franklin who was caught in the riots yesterday, reporting what was going on from the ground there. We reported on this early this morning on Black Web 2.0, here is his own video account of what is going on via YouTube:
Franklin has reported that he is safe via his Twitter account.
By Angela Benton, BlackWeb20.com
If you are surprised by the headline of this story you may not be the only one. Currently there are riots in Kampala Uganda and local newsources that would typically provide information to people caught in the mix are literally halted…atleast on the web. The Independent, a local Ugandan newsource, apparently is down because so many people are looking to it for information. They are communicating via Twitter In this day in age that shouldn’t be an issue right? Especially with so many people relying on Twitter as a source for information similar to a newswire. The main problem with that is information generally has to trend high enough to be distributed to masses on the platform. In this instance it hasn’t. Hundreds if not thousands of people (in Kampala and in the US who may have family there) literally have no idea what is going on from the ground. You are probably thinking that mainstream media has surely covered this in World News. No dice. Of course as far at the US is concerned it is September 11th so most coverage today has been focused on that. However, there is no mention of riots in Kampala on CNN.com which is often dubbed as the “King of News Media using Social Media.” MSNBC.com does have coverage in their world section. Most coverage is coming from the BBC and The Guardian (as seen from Google News). What has resulted is a handful of citizen journalist, one of who includes Gospel Singer Kirk Franklin who was caught in the riots yesterday, reporting what was going on from the ground there. We reported on this early this morning on Black Web 2.0, here is his own video account of what is going on via YouTube:
Franklin has reported that he is safe via his Twitter account.
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