On January 24 2011, terrorists attacked Moscow’s largest airport killing more than 30 people and injuring over 100. This tragic event yet again showed that Russia is still not a safe country. But it also became an example of how the Russian media environment is being reshaped by blogs and social media.
The attack hit the airport on a usual workday at 4:32pm Moscow time. Yet the first time Russian broadcast TV mentioned it was at 5:44pm, more than an hour after the attack (see the complete timeline here [14]). Several cable TV networks with much smaller audiences started talking about it a little earlier, but it was still long after the Russian Internet community was already boiling with tweets, blogs and even videos from the scene being distributed at an unthinkable speed.
The information first made it to the public sphere in a blog by a manager of a Russian firm who said that his driver had just called and told him about the explosion. The driver, who was at the airport meeting travelers, was badly injured, and the post was published less than 10 minutes after the blast. At approximately the same time, those at the airport started to tweet what they saw. Within less than half an hour, tweets, videos and photos taken by mobile phones with the #domodedovo hashtag became primary news accounts. Most news websites used Twitter to broadcast latest news from the airport, while the main Russian TV channels continued their usual programming of soap operas and talk shows.
This of course enraged the Internet community. A tweet by @MirianJugheli gives a good overview of what happened during first hours after the bombing: “TV: 1st channel – TV show, Russia Channel – series, NTV – series, should I continue? CNN – live coverage, BBC – live coverage.” Alexey Navalny, a Russian blogger famous for his anti-corruption investigations, wrote in his post “Right now we are witnessing the death of Russian TV {..} as a source of quick information during a crisis.”
It is hard to disagree with his opinion, although a longer view of the coverage shows that Russian TV is slowly changing. Compared to the tragic metro bombings in March 2010 when it took some federal TV channels 2-3 hours to start reporting, it now seems that TV managers have learned their lesson. TV journalists used eyewitness accounts posted online to get information, YouTube videos were aired, and news anchors read tweets from the scene live. All unheard of in a country where live TV is practically nonexistent.
Yet it was the Internet, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs that played the most important role during the event and that made it harder for TV channels to distort information, especially the number of casualties. Since Soviet times, TV channels have been accused of not accurately reporting casualties and not reporting in a timely or complete manner. With the eyewitness accounts by doctors and first responders spread by social media, lowering the number of casualties is virtually impossible, making the Internet both a watchdog and a major news source. So as long as the Internet is not hampered by regulation, it will continue to change the media environment in Russia.
Michael Mirny [15] is the Chief of Party of the USAID [16]-funded International Media Partnerships Program [17]in Russia.