What Bin Laden’s death teaches us about modern media

Wanted to share this story from our friends in the Washington DC office who have spoken about the historic announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death. While the team at Edelman in Sydney all stood around the TV watching the story unfold, in the U.S., the news hit late Sunday evening, when prime-time television programs were interrupted with breaking news that President Obama would be making a statement. However, the details of the statement were ambiguous and the media circled about, speculating for about 30 minutes before Obama spoke . Online, people began to discuss and share information.

In a post on his blog Logic + Emotion, David Armano, Edelman Digital’s EVP of Global Innovation & Integration, reflected on the state of media, based on how he consumed and digested it as news of bin Laden’s death spread.

Here is a link to David Armano’s post, “What Bin Laden’s Death Teaches Us About Modern Media.” Armano’s key thoughts include:

• Media will continue to fragment
• Social media spreads like wildfire
• People use traditional media to validate what they see online
• The need for information curators grows

How did you share the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death?

-Kate