Twitter user @adrianweckler (Sunday Business Post tech editor) was, it seems, the first to tweet the news. At 2:16pm, he wrote 'Gerry Ryan...? What?' before adding that there was a 'rumour mill' five minutes later. At 2:31pm, he wrote that a source claimed he had died. About 10 minutes later, Miriam O'Callaghan confirmed the news. She has since deleted her tweet (pictured).
Adrian Weckler, in a blog post, wrote that the Irish media often runs stories that aren't officially confirmed, yet "Twitter isn't credited to act in the same way." Indeed, John Horgan, speaking at DCU in February, said that if journalists couldn't report speculation there would be a lot less to write about.
The 'traditional' media rarely report names without first checking that next of kin have been informed, however. In an age where everyone has a voice and can communicate to the masses in an instant, reports like this are a new reality.
The news quickly went global. Sky News featured the news throughout the afternoon, the Associated Press sent a bulletin to its customers, and @Flipbooks, a popular American Twitter user with 40,000 followers, posted a link to the Guardian's article on it.
"The 'traditional' media rarely report names without first checking that next of kin have been informed"
ReplyDeleteThat might have been the case a few years ago, but not any more. I frequently hear people killed in car crashes names before Gardai have released the name, having informed the family. You can usually spot it under the form of words "the man/woman, named locally as"