Wednesday 5 September 2012

Twitter useful at Lonmin Shooting


Twitter has been one of the social platforms that journalists used to report the Lonmin Massacre that made headlines both local and international news.

Different media houses assigned their journalists to report about the event as it transpired. These reporters used twitter to update their followers about the shooting at Marikana.

Some of the journalists that were tweeting live from the event were Poloko Tau, Karyn Maughan and Cathy Mohlahlana.  All these reporters reported in their unique way that attracted the reader’s attention.

Three of the timelines of these reporters kept followers on track about the event by reporting each and every detail about the shooting as it happened. These reporters managed to build their credibility through twitter as followers were keen to be updated about Lonmin massacre.

Poloko Tau is a political reporter at The Star Newspaper. He is one of the leading reporters that used twitter to keep his followers and general readers about the Marikana shooting.

His timeline was unique as he gave followers background information about Lonimin miners and what led to them refusing to work.

He dug up the past and ensured that he relates that information with the current event as it unfolded.
He further described the shooting at the scene and gave us an overview of how the miners come close to the police. 

Karyn Maughan who is a senior legal reporter at ENEWS interacted with her followers as they asked question about the situation at Marikana.  She ensured that she answered most of the questions asked about the shootings.  Her timeline was interesting and informative. She made her followers feel part of the shooting.

Cathy Mohlahlana is also an Etv news reporter. Her timeline was packed with different sources that she spoke to as they expressed their views about the shooting. . She described the mood for us throughout the day.
It is a known fact that twitter was useful during the Lonmin shooting and journalists managed to update their followers. What happened at Lonmin was a clear indication that twitter is taking over news coverage in the entire world.

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