3 Replies to “A Timeline of Cameron’s Dive & the Power of Twitter”
Like you, I was late for a dinner appointment because I couldnt tear myself away from the computer. Luckily when I called to apologise, I found my hosts were doing the exact same thing! This is truly the first time that I have been completely and utterly absorbed by events unfolding on Twitter. It made me feel like part of the action and it was heady stuff indeed. Thanks for the Storify!
I’m with you. I was preparing for my Sunday night online game of Dungeons & Dragons (set beneath the surface of the sea, of course), watching the tweets unfold via Facebook. I was absolutely flabbergasted that the major news networks were not covering the event as it unfolded.
And yes, I halfway expected James Cameron to find the plug in the bottom of the ocean, down there. ;)
To be fair, I think “traditional media weren’t covering this” is a bit of a red herring. From looking at the way the Deepsea Challenge team was doing press releases, it’s pretty clear that they weren’t looking for a ton of publicity during the dive, and for obvious reasons. If I were diving solo into the deepest trench in the world in an experimental vessel, I wouldn’t want the media watching every moment either. Imagine what the articles would look like if MSNBC, CNN, BBC, and Fox News were doing minute by minute reports during that 30+minutes of no contact. I might even go as far as to plan the first experimental to correspond with the weekend shift for most major western news corps.
The Monday morning coverage made it pretty clear that there was a carefully thought out plan for public outreach once the first dive was successful and Jim was back on deck.
Like you, I was late for a dinner appointment because I couldnt tear myself away from the computer. Luckily when I called to apologise, I found my hosts were doing the exact same thing! This is truly the first time that I have been completely and utterly absorbed by events unfolding on Twitter. It made me feel like part of the action and it was heady stuff indeed. Thanks for the Storify!
I’m with you. I was preparing for my Sunday night online game of Dungeons & Dragons (set beneath the surface of the sea, of course), watching the tweets unfold via Facebook. I was absolutely flabbergasted that the major news networks were not covering the event as it unfolded.
And yes, I halfway expected James Cameron to find the plug in the bottom of the ocean, down there. ;)
To be fair, I think “traditional media weren’t covering this” is a bit of a red herring. From looking at the way the Deepsea Challenge team was doing press releases, it’s pretty clear that they weren’t looking for a ton of publicity during the dive, and for obvious reasons. If I were diving solo into the deepest trench in the world in an experimental vessel, I wouldn’t want the media watching every moment either. Imagine what the articles would look like if MSNBC, CNN, BBC, and Fox News were doing minute by minute reports during that 30+minutes of no contact. I might even go as far as to plan the first experimental to correspond with the weekend shift for most major western news corps.
The Monday morning coverage made it pretty clear that there was a carefully thought out plan for public outreach once the first dive was successful and Jim was back on deck.