There’s been a rise of “citizen journalists” whether from the bombed out neighborhoods in Syria to the tornado ravaged mid-west towns in the U.S. And today, March 6, 2012, you have an opportunity to hear from “citizen journalist” Sohaib Athar who tweeted live about the raid on the Pakistani compound of Osama bin Laden.
Athar is the guest of the Eckerd College Organization of Students and the Poynter Institute. The program, “Tweeting Osama’s Death: From Citizen to Journalist,” is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. at Eckerd College, 4200 54th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, Florida. The event is free and open to the public.
Athar was an IT consultant from Abbottabad, Pakistan. He didn’t know when he started tweeting that the Black Hawk helicopters he was hearing belonged to U.S. military forces. But, on May 2, 2011, he heard sounds – first helicopters and then an explosion. It was only later that he learned that he was tweeting about the raid that led to the death of the al-Qaeda leader.
To learn more about Athar’s tweets, you can read Steve Myers’ article posted on May 3, 2011 and his defense of the “citizen journalist” term on May 5, 2011.
