Posted by Susanne 
The Dark Knight Rising Shootings were a chilling and sickening end to the week, leaving 12 people dead and, as ever in this connected age, was trending on Twitter within the hour as well as being covered by all the mainstream media.
How the news unfolded on social media has been put together on Storify by @Poynter and @NiemanLab, while The Awl debated when, if ever, news channels should even consider covering a piece of tragic breaking news, not that is relevant on social media since much of the coverage came, as ever, for people at the scene and affected.
Here in the UK the run up to what has been dubbed the Anti Social Games is reaching fever pitch, albeit it a characteristically British manner, with the Olympic Brand Police out in force this week trying to ensure (to limited success as the picture above illustrates) that no one can capitilise on the Games without paying a whooping amount of money for the privilege, even though Londoners are being particularly badly affected while reaping few obvious benefits – and no, the lighting up of the London Eye in response to the emotions about the Olympics on Twitter probably doesn’t count.
It’s all uncannily a bit too much like Twenty Twelve really, and is shaping up to achieve for the coalition government what an economic recession, public sector cuts and failure so far to bring the bankers to heel hasn’t as yet ie completely alienate the British people.
In contrast, O2 won a lot of positive coverage and public support with their measured response on social media following their 3-day mobile black out. After a bit of a stuttering start, it evolved into a case book study in social customer service and how to deal with aggression and trolling on Twitter.
The Corp Comms Digi Awards were as good as expected, with kudos to the organisers and all the winners. It was noticable to see how many ‘social goodness’ entries (public sector, non profits, charities) there were, which is obviously an area in which that we have a big interest.
It does seem as if social media and mobile app usage is slowly being recognised as the invaluable tools that they are for making a social change, as Practical Action’s ‘technology to tackle poverty’ campaign, the Big Up Your Chest campaign on Facebook, Kent Medway’s mobile condom app, the London Fire Brigade’s 5th November campaign and the Thank A Soldier digital campaign all illustrate beautifully.
In other news, the Internet flash lobby is fast becoming a political force, in the States as well as here in the UK; an American hospital live-steamed a toddler’s open heart surgery on social media; Twitter & BuddyMedia joined forces to create an opt-in ‘age-screening’ solution for brands, though it does very much rely on the honesty of the Twitter user; The Guardian published a rather shocking interactive tube map showing life expectancy and child wealth v poverty in London, and Budweiser debuted the first branded YouTube channel – although sadly it’s all about football, rather than the delightful Clydesdale’s.
With summer finally upon us here in UK (if the weather reporters are to be believed) the news team are taking a much-needed break until after the Olympic fuss has died down, so have a good few weeks and we’ll be back again in August.
Bon vacance.
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