Mat Honan for Gizmodo:

Mobile devices are turning us all into reporters. The citizen journalist hasn’t been such an important player since the days of the American Revolution. That’s largely been a cell phone phenomena; everyday people can both record and broadcast information widely, and in narrow channels.When conditions at Occupy Oakland turned violent, I didn’t go to the San Francisco Chronicle, which had a paucity of static information. I didn’t turn to the local TV networks (one of which was off-air for a helicopter refuel), I went to Twitter and YouTube, which gave me a steady stream of reportage, video and photos from the ground, describing events as they happened.

So true. Think about how many major news items you’ve heard about on Twitter or Facebook over the past couple of years and compare that to how many you heard about on TV or radio. I usually hear about the event on Twitter and then turn on CNN and watch the two together.