Law enforcement officials in Boston on Tuesday asked the public to bring forward any photos or videos captured at Monday’s marathon that may help to piece together the mystery of who is behind one of the first large-scale domestic terrorist attacks since 9/11.
News organizations, too, relied heavily on media from bystanders who captured the moment the first explosion blew windows from storefronts and knocked runners approaching the finish line to the ground -- like this raw video from Runner Jennifer Treacy that showed a blast of white smoke spilling into the race route.
Much has changed since the 9/11 attacks, when the public relied heavily on mainstream news reports for most of their information and investigators couldn’t count on the abundance of high-quality images from the scenes of the attack that they now often solicit. Over the last decade, the use of social media and smartphones has played an increasingly important role in both the delivery of information as a crisis unfolds and the investigation that follows.
“It seems like there’s a new platform everyday,” said Jim Lukaszewski, a crisis management and media consultant, who’s lectured on the media and terrorism. “I think clearly social media is and will continue to play an extraordinarily important role in events like this, whether it’s the Carnival disaster or — name your disaster.”
In February, when a fire in the engine room of the Carnival Triumph blew out power through much of the ship, stranding thousands of passengers at sea, stories of conditions on board leaked out through a stream of photos and videos shared online via smartphones. When a much graver tragedy stuck Newtown, Conn. months earlier, both the flow of information between the public and law enforcement officials, as well as the flow of condolences to the devastated community—the Acts of Kindness twitter campaign, for example—moved swiftly through the web.
In the case of the Boston attack, where so many people were on hand to witness an elite sporting event, cameras at the ready, investigators have the promise of an immense amount of information to work with.
Those who post online any information that can be seen as relevant to the investigation, Lukaszewski speculated, may even get a visit from the FBI.
“One thing is clear from [Monday morning’s police] press conference: every stone will be unturned.”
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In addition to providing resources to the law enforcement community, social media has given those directly touched by tragedy resources to immediately solve problems on the ground. Monday, Google launched People Finder, an online message board that it developed after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and used again in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. As of Tuesday afternoon, about 5,400 records pertaining to the Boston attack had been entered to the database.
With cell phone service overwhelmed, as it was in the wake of 9/11, people trying to connect had the added options of sending messages via Facebook and other platforms. Stories abounded on cable television and online about marathon runners telling their loved ones they were okay via Facebook, where marathon organizers first posted news of two explosions.
Eleven years ago, before these tools were available, many people looking for their loved ones after the Twin Towers were attacked resorted to posting flyers on walls and street lights, requesting anyone with information to call.
Lee Ielpi, the president and co-founder of the 9/11 Families' Association first got word of the 2001 attack from his son, a firefighter who died at Ground Zero, who called to let him know about the first reports coming across an internal radio. Ielpi recalled that, at the time, many people were relying on direct phone calls to gather information. He sees the new avenues of information sharing that have developed since then as a double-edged sword.
"People get it all on their phones, which in a sense is good," he said. "People have to understand when there's an attack." But he adds that the new media also spreads anxiety, particularly before concrete details are available.
What struck Ielpi, even more than the speed with which information traveled about the Boston blasts, was the speed with which law enforcement officials sprung into action, as if thoughts of terrorism were at the front of their minds.
"It's interesting, watching the uniformed people, how quickly they react to it now," he said, pointing out that in certain photos you can see that police had their weapons drawn in the seconds after the blast.
"It's a bit scary to think about it, but this is the way we have to live now," he said. "We have to be prepared for these events."
Photo Credit: Boston Globe via Getty Images