I rarely listen carefully to traffic reports on TV or on the radio. This is not a reflection on traffic reporters. I’ve met some very nice traffic reporters in person and via social media. But I often assume the road is clear by the time I hear a traffic report on the air. I came to this conclusion after often hearing about big back-ups to then encounter only a fast-moving freeway. One exception is when state department of transportation cameras catch long lines of vehicles and brake lights and news stations broadcast those pictures live.
Social media changes traffic reporting. A Channel 3 reporter here in the Phoenix area Tweeted about a dust storm and a huge, interstate pile-up. Friends of mine driving into town were headed directly toward the dust storm and the pile-up. I quickly called my friends, clicked on Google Maps and re-routed them. I then replied to the reporter with two Tweets.
“Thank you. I just re-routed friends around the area due to your Tweet.”
“I’m on Google Maps now directing them to 79. Thank you. RT @(reporter) @keithyaskin great! ADOT recommending route 79…sounds awful.”
My friends later called back. After successfully taking a road around the closed highway, they now headed into Phoenix and worried about the dust storm. Were they about to drive into it? Should they pull over? At that moment, I noticed a Channel 15 TV anchor Tweeted about the storm.
“We will keep you updated on this dust storm and the injuries all afternoon. #GetHomeSafe #ABC15 @ 3, 4, 5, and 6pm!”
I wasn’t waiting for the top of the hour. Turning on the TV didn’t cross my mind. I asked her for information now … in real time.
“@(TVanchor) What direction is the dust storm headed?”
She Tweeted back with information. I called my friends and explained they were OK to keep driving into town.
My Tweets later led to a Twitter conversation about using social media and Google Maps to help people with directions compared to the day of unfolding paper maps, stopping at gas stations and finding pay phones.
I haven’t even mentioned yet how reporters also Tweeted pictures of the dust storm. How social media has changed the way I receive and react to news! Producers use to send me to a scene to go “live” because that’s what separated TV from print: We were immediate. What is more immediate than reporting live from the scene? Social media often is. Social media doesn’t wait for a crew to drive to a scene, raise the mast, tune in a live shot and then wait for the station to put a reporter on the air.
I’m not saying turn the channel in terms of where you digest your news. I know people who DVR the evening news and still enjoy the feel of a newspaper in their hands. But journalists and especially newsroom managers can’t consider social media a footnote, a sideshow or simply a spot to post links to last night’s news. Otherwise those managers will place themselves in a position they dread: playing catch-up. And sometimes their newscasts will be playing catch-up to their own reporters, who Tweeted the information long before the clock ticked to the top of the hour.