"Our Politicians Fiddle as Innocents Die," blared the Times of India newspaper on Sunday as the political recriminations began in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The headline coincided with the resignation of India's highest-ranking internal security official, who said he was taking "moral" responsibility for the tragedy.
While the country's black-cat commandos have been largely commended for their work in the street-to-street (and sometimes room-to-room) combat with the assailants, the Indian intelligence, counter terrorism and surveillance services faced almost immediate criticism for allowing the attacks to happen in the first place. There are even reports that the government had advance warning.
All of this sounds eerily reminiscent. The early reporting from India suggests that national governments have not learned the lessons from the failures of earlier targets of terrorism.
It is worth saying out loud that the strengths and weaknesses of the evolving media landscape were also on full public view during this latest tragedy, marking an evolution that can be traced back to natural disasters (hurricanes on the gulf coast of this country or the Asian tsnami) if not before.
Consider stories that were published and posted while Mumbai was still under siege. NPR introduced its listeners to Sreenath Sreenivasan, a journalist who also serves as dean of student affairs at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Within in an hour of learning of the Mumbai attacks, Sreenivasan "was hosting a Web radio call-in show with other Indian journalists relaying what they knew." It was the meeting of old and media, with the conventions of journalism tempering the noise that inevitably follows shocking developments.
Elsewhere, a Reuters dispatch reported, "Bloggers across Mumbai fed live updates ... [on the] ...attacks in the heart of India's financial capital, highlighting the social media's new expanding role in news coverage." It pointed to photos of the attacks on Flikr, frequent updates of an entry on Wikipedia, a steady stream of updates and comments on twitter and myriad bloggers doing what they could to help. Clearly, these Web 2.0 technologies are as effective as anything we have seen in terms of immediacy -- a particularly powerful attribute when they are in the hands of those on the ground with unique, authoratative information.
But, and there is are two big buts here: (a) precious few bloggers and even microbloggers are that close and that relevant, prefering instead the comfort of home half way around the world (present company included); and, (b) something disturbing happened to embedded links as they aged. Dina Mehta blogged furiously from Mumbai during the siege, originally describing herself as "upset and angry and bereft." But by Sunday night, visitors to her blog were greeted by a corrupted headline, "Why I am deleting comments Error 404 - Not Found." Another blogger, Gaurav Mishra, explained why in -- ironically enough -- one of the remaining comments on Mehta's blog. In short, some of the comments were deemed extremest and even "evil". Citizen journalism has no conventions to guide it, and those that comment are prepared to say almost anything under the veil of anonymity.
[As if to remind us of those things at which Web 2.0 is particularly good, Mishra provides links to events or movements spontaneously conceived on or through the Web to benefits of victims of the 11/26 terrorist attacks -- some local, others global -- Nov 30 Tweetup at Leopold Cafe, Facebook Wear White Event, Facebook Support 11/26 Fighters Event.]
At the risk of making a snap judgment even as the events of last week are still unwinding, the response and the reportage were both only partial successes. Honoring those who served well is important but taking a hard look at what failed may be where the greatest value lies. It is the only way to perfect or reform institutions about which we care -- government, media and that still amorphous thing called Web 2.0.
A final note. There is another post about Mumbai that I struggled to write over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I couldn't get it right. Thankfully, CBC essayist Rex Murphy did:
While the country's black-cat commandos have been largely commended for their work in the street-to-street (and sometimes room-to-room) combat with the assailants, the Indian intelligence, counter terrorism and surveillance services faced almost immediate criticism for allowing the attacks to happen in the first place. There are even reports that the government had advance warning.
All of this sounds eerily reminiscent. The early reporting from India suggests that national governments have not learned the lessons from the failures of earlier targets of terrorism.
It is worth saying out loud that the strengths and weaknesses of the evolving media landscape were also on full public view during this latest tragedy, marking an evolution that can be traced back to natural disasters (hurricanes on the gulf coast of this country or the Asian tsnami) if not before.
Consider stories that were published and posted while Mumbai was still under siege. NPR introduced its listeners to Sreenath Sreenivasan, a journalist who also serves as dean of student affairs at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Within in an hour of learning of the Mumbai attacks, Sreenivasan "was hosting a Web radio call-in show with other Indian journalists relaying what they knew." It was the meeting of old and media, with the conventions of journalism tempering the noise that inevitably follows shocking developments.
Elsewhere, a Reuters dispatch reported, "Bloggers across Mumbai fed live updates ... [on the] ...attacks in the heart of India's financial capital, highlighting the social media's new expanding role in news coverage." It pointed to photos of the attacks on Flikr, frequent updates of an entry on Wikipedia, a steady stream of updates and comments on twitter and myriad bloggers doing what they could to help. Clearly, these Web 2.0 technologies are as effective as anything we have seen in terms of immediacy -- a particularly powerful attribute when they are in the hands of those on the ground with unique, authoratative information.
But, and there is are two big buts here: (a) precious few bloggers and even microbloggers are that close and that relevant, prefering instead the comfort of home half way around the world (present company included); and, (b) something disturbing happened to embedded links as they aged. Dina Mehta blogged furiously from Mumbai during the siege, originally describing herself as "upset and angry and bereft." But by Sunday night, visitors to her blog were greeted by a corrupted headline, "Why I am deleting comments Error 404 - Not Found." Another blogger, Gaurav Mishra, explained why in -- ironically enough -- one of the remaining comments on Mehta's blog. In short, some of the comments were deemed extremest and even "evil". Citizen journalism has no conventions to guide it, and those that comment are prepared to say almost anything under the veil of anonymity.
[As if to remind us of those things at which Web 2.0 is particularly good, Mishra provides links to events or movements spontaneously conceived on or through the Web to benefits of victims of the 11/26 terrorist attacks -- some local, others global -- Nov 30 Tweetup at Leopold Cafe, Facebook Wear White Event, Facebook Support 11/26 Fighters Event.]
At the risk of making a snap judgment even as the events of last week are still unwinding, the response and the reportage were both only partial successes. Honoring those who served well is important but taking a hard look at what failed may be where the greatest value lies. It is the only way to perfect or reform institutions about which we care -- government, media and that still amorphous thing called Web 2.0.
A final note. There is another post about Mumbai that I struggled to write over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I couldn't get it right. Thankfully, CBC essayist Rex Murphy did:
We should not see what happened ... in India - what is happening - as something in a distant country, but as a chilling and depraved assault on on what all decent people share in common.Terrorism is the murder of innocents as a tactic in the service of fanaticism. It is the anti-politics of our time. It is a threat to us all. The blast was in Mumbai, but its vibrations are meant for every civilized city of the planet.
... It is merely right therefore that we give our thoughts to their particular plight - and offer - to these, our fellow citizens - our alert and full sympathy.


