Real Time Citizen Journalism in Mumbai Terrorist Attacks

( The Mumbai terror attack has finally ended after more than 60 hours.

One such initiative is Voices Against Terror, an open group blog/ online petition that hopes to help build international consensus, including consensus in Pakistan, against terrorism and terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawah.)

Late on November 26, Mumbai was shaken by a series of bomb blasts and shootouts in at least twelve ten prominent locations in the upmarket and densely populated South Mumbai, including hotels (Oberai Trident and Taj Mahal, Marriott and Ramada), the popular restaurant Leopold Cafe, hospitals (Cama Hospital and Bombay Hospital), Nariman House, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station and the police headquarters in South Mumbai.

The situation is still developing and there is wide speculation about whether these incidents are a result of a gang war or a coordinated terrorist attack. Hitherto little-known terrorist organization Deccan Mujahideen has taken responsibility for the attacks but many believe that Lashkar-e-Taiba is behind the attacks. The terrorists, young men aged between 20 to 25 years, are believed to have come to Mumbai by sea.

So far at least 25 60 80 87 101 125 143 154 people are feared to be dead and t least 250 900 250 274 327 more are reported to be injured. At least 50 100 more people, especially British and US nationals, have been were held hostage by the terrorists at the Taj Mahal and Oberai Trident hotels and Nariman House, but most of them have been released now. As a result of heavy fighting, both hotels are on fire now the situation is under control now.

So far, micro-blogging service Twitter seems to be the best source for real time citizen news on the Mumbai terrorist attacks, and “Mumbai” & “#Mumbai” are both on Twitter trending topics now.

Some blogs, like Global Voices, are also beginning to write about the Mumbai terrorist attacks, but most active Indian bloggers are talking about the unfolding event on Twitter.

The Mumbai terrorist attack is now on the front page of Google News and Mahalo is doing a great job of compiling the story as it unfolds.

The first photos of the Mumbai terrorist attacks are up on CNN-IBN and NDTV and both (CNN-IBN and NDTV) are streaming live video feeds of the unfolding situation.

I’ll be updating this post with more citizen generated resources on the Mumbai terrorist attacks as they are put up.

Update (Nov 27, 12:45 am India time): The first YouTube videos on the Mumbai terrorist attacks are up (1 and 2), but they aren’t live accounts, just TV recordings. The first Flickr photographs of the Mumbai terrorist attacks are also put up by Vinukumar Ranganathan.

Update (Nov 27, 1:30 am India time): The Mumbai terrorist attack is now on the front page of the citizen journalism website GroundReport.

Update (Nov 27, 2:00 am India time): The phone lines in Mumbai are jammed in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. @Zickzackly is offering to halp pass on messages at the MumbaiHelp blog.

Several people on Twitter are also offering to help pass on messages to friends and family in Mumbai.

Update (Nov 27, 2:15 am India time): Neha Vishwanathan at Global Voices is doing a series of posts on the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 2:30 am India time): After Mahalo citizen journalism website NowPublic has the best page on the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Several TV recordings of the Mumbai terrorist attack are now up on YouTube, but there aren’t any first hand videos yet.

Update (Nov 27, 2:45 am India time): Both the popular Indian blog aggregators — DesiPundit and BlogBharti — are strangely silent on the Mumbai terrorist attacks!

Maitri Vatul has done a roundup of social media coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks (via Mahalo).

Update (Nov 27, 3:00 am India time): A sketchy Wikipedia page on the Mumbai terrorist attacks is now up. Please help update it.

Now the volume of tweets on the Mumbai terrorist attacks is so high that I can’t keep up! So, I am now checking geo-tagged tweets on the Mumbai terrorist attacks from people living in Mumbai (via @zishaanhayath).

Update (Nov 27, 3:15 am India time): Manish at Ultrabrown is live-blogging the Mumbai terrorist attacks with some first person accounts.

Update (Nov 27, 3:30 am India time): Now, someone has started a dedicated twitter account for updates on the Mumbai terrorist attacks @mumbaiattack

Update (Nov 27, 3:45 am India time): Here’s a Google Map of the key locations in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 4:15 am India time): Indian blog aggregator Desipundit finally has a roundup post up on the Mumbai terrorist attacks and well-known Indian blogger Amit Varma has a narrow escape from the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 4:30 am India time): Arzan Sam Wadia at Mumbai Metblogs is doing a series of posts on the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Xeni Zardin at Boing Boing and Noah Shachtman on Wired have done roundups of citizen journalism coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 4:45 am India time): Here are two graphs showing the spike in tweets about Mumbai and tweets tagged with #Mumbai in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

There are 100+ videos on YouTube now on the Mumbai terrorist attacks, but only recording of TV news clippings, no user generated videos.

@kcbsnews wants to speak to Twitter users in Mumbai –

Are you in Mumbai? We’d love to know what you’re hearing and seeing.

SepiaMutiny has a post up on the Mumbai terrorist attacks but points to the SAJA post for discussions. SAJA is hosting discussions on the Mumbai terrorist attacks on BlogTalkRadio

Update (Nov 27, 5:30 am India time): Looking at the front page of Technorati, you wouldn’t even suspect that Mumbai is wrecked apart by terrorist attacks!

Update (Nov 27, 6:30 am India time): Several technology blogs — including Techmeme, TechCrunch, 140 Chars and Amy Gahran — are writing posts on the role of Twitter in the reporting on the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

CNN has even linked to the Twitter profiles of @gsik and @puneet and the Flickr set of @vinu in its story on online coverage of Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 8:30 am India time): Kamla Bhatt is live-blogging the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Dan Gillmor has written a nice post onthe role of Wikipedia as a news breaking source in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Homeland Security National Terror Alert tweets about the dangers of social media without explaining what dangers it is talking about –

#mumbai terror attack demonstrates the usefulness and also the dangers of social media.

Global Voices has a special coverage page for the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Fox News links to Vinu’s Flickr photos on the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Finally, before I take my first break in almost 8 hours, I find myself in the unenviable situation of explaining to someone that this post is not a “power of social media” game for me, but a distraction from endlessly worrying/ praying about my friends back in Mumbai.

Update (Nov 27, 11:30 am India time): Back from a break, I’m shocked that the terrorist seize of Mumbai is still going on, after almost 12 hours! This is not a terrorist attack, this is war!

Several bloggers (Arzan Sam Wadia and Duncan Riley) are speculating if the government wants to shut off Twitter, fearing that the terrorists might be tracking it.

Mahalo has a separate page up for the coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks on Twitter.

Update (Nov 27, 11:45 am India time): Several bloggers are now discussing if Twitter has been a valid source of news during the Mumbai terrorist attacks — Mathew Ingram, Ewan McLeod, Jason Preston, Twitips, Tom, TechMacro, Riayn, Chris Maiorana, Laural Papworth, Stephen Collins, Amit Agarwal, Tim Malbon, Daily Twitter.

Ted McEnroe from NECN also has a story on the use of Twitter and Flickr in the Mumbai terrorist attack reporting.

Update (Nov 27, 1:15 pm India time): Dina Mehta, who has been tweeting about the situation all night has a post with useful helpline numbers (cross-posted at MumbaiHelp blog).

Indian blogger-writer Sonia Faleiro writes an evocative first person account of the Mumbai terrorist attack. Sonia and Amit Varma were probably together in the group of six stranded at the Gordon House Hotel in South Mumbai.

Indian blog aggregator BlogBharti finally has a roundup of blog posts on the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 2:15 pm India time): As the #Mumbai volume on Twitter explodes I’m moving to the Twitter feed for links related to the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

After all this talk of the role of Twitter in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, @biz has posted a four sentence official post.

NDTV has a comprehensive roundup of online discussions about the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 2:30 pm India time): US Daily Star Telegram quotes me extensively on a story on the use of Twitter in the reporting on the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 3:45 pm India time): Suddenly, all the newspapers/ TV channels are interested in the story on the role of social media in the Mumbai terrorist attacks reporting.

The Age story on the role of Twitter in covering the Mumbai terrorist attacks (via Faine Greenwood).

Shefaly Yogendra has an interesting analysis of what happened on Twitter in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 4:15 pm India time): On a Skype video call with CNN for an interview on the role of social media in the Mumbai terrorist attack coverage. Waiting patiently for my turn while tweeting links.

Update (Nov 27, 4:30 pm India time): Just finished my live Skype interview with CNN on the role of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

The seize in Mumbai has been on for almost one full day now and no end is in sight. I feel angry and tired/ frustrated in turns.

Update (Nov 27, 5:30 pm India time): BBC blindly follows the news rumors on twitter –

Indian government asks for live Twitter updates from Mumbai to cease immediately. “ALL LIVE UPDATES – PLEASE STOP TWEETING about #Mumbai police and military operations,” a tweet says.

Journalism.co.uk has a nice roundup of the online coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 27, 8:30 pm India time): Mayank Austen Sufi has compiled a collection of reactions to the Mumbai terrorist attacks from Delhi artist types.

Rezwan has written a post at GlobalVoices about the use of Twitter in discussing the Mumbai terror attacks.

ArunShanbag is live-blogging the Mumbai terrorist attacks and posting pictures from the affected South Mumbai areas.

Blogadda has a list of Indian bloggers live-blogging the #mumbai terrorist attacks.

Jessica Reed from The Guardian has a nice roundup of social media coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Update (Nov 28, 4:45 am India time): Here’s a regularly updated list of Indian bloggers have been live-blogging the Mumbai terror attacks. While most bloggers are posting news and opinion based on mainstream media coverage, a few are posting first hand accounts and even photographs. I still haven’t seen any user generated videos.

Update (Nov 28, 6:30 am India time): Three dramatically different first-hand accounts of the same #mumbai terror incident from Rahul, Amit and Sonia. It’s impossible to guess from the posts that they were stranded together at the Gordon House Hotel.

Suddenly, the tone of discourse on the Mumbai terrorist attacks has changed in the Indian blogosphere from sharing information and expressing pain to offering analysis and rhetoric. The change is obvious if you compare DesiPundit‘s first roundup of posts about the Mumbai attacks with its second roundup. But, I expected this to happen, once the shock of the surprise seize wore off.

Update (Nov 28, 7:30 am India time): Several Indian bloggers have criticized the Indian television news channels for sensationalizing their coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks and, perhaps, helping the terrorists inadvertently: Neha Vishwanathan, Chetan Kunte, Prem Panicker, OffStumped, Falstaff.

Update (Nov 28, 8:30 am India time): Dipity has several useful visual displays for user-generated content, including a map view and a timeline view.

Update (Nov 28, 9:30 am India time): Here are videos of the CNN interviews with Dina (also on YouTube) and Vinu (also on YouTube) on the Mumbai terror attacks –

Amit Varma‘s interview with BBC —

Update (Nov 28, 10:00 am India time): Indiblogger is also compiling a list of posts by Indian bloggers on the Mumbai terror attack.

Update (Nov 28, 8:15 pm India time): I can’t believe that the Mumbai terror attack is still going on, after almost 48 hours! I feel sad & angry & exhausted. This can’t be true.

Amit Varma points to some great news articles & blog posts on the #mumbai terror attacks.

Update (Nov 28, 11:15 pm India time): @zickzackly has started a Facebook event to show solidarity with the policemen and soldiers fighting the Mumbai attacks.

Update (Nov 28, 11:45 pm India time): Even as I continue to update this post with instances of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terror attacks, I’m trying to make sense of what happened in a work-in-progress case study on the role of social media in the Mumbai terror attacks. Also see my interviews on the role of citizen journalism in the terror attacks with CBS News, DNA, LiveMint, Journalism.co.uk and Star Telegram.

Update (Nov 29, 1:30 am India time): Vinukumar Ranganathan has more Flickr photos of navy activity in South Mumbai and life in Mumbai in the aftermath of the terror attacks.

Update (Nov 29, 3:00 am India time): CNN interview of blogger Harish Iyer, who has set up Mumbai Terror Helpline to track details on the injured/ dead in the Mumbai attack.

Here’s a Google Docs spreadsheet of the injured and dead in the Mumbai terror attack via MumbaiHelp.

Arun Shanbhag and Ashesh Shah are now uploading photos of the Mumbai terror attack to Flickr.

Update (Nov 29, 8:30 am India time): Aravind T Jose has made a video of the timeline of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terror attack, based on this post –

A Wordle representation of this post –

NECN on citizen journalism in Mumbai terror attacks –