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Discuss “Internet plays powerful role in wake of Va. Tech”

Amid the chaos of what is already being called the Virginia Tech massacre, the Internet was a steady flow of fairly accurate information. Blogs — typically the anti–news source — were what helped piece together the events of early last Monday. Facebook — the social networking site of the century — was what helped friends and family know loved ones were okay. AIM idle times — usually an annoyance to anyone who wants to talk to someone — were identifiers to possible whereabouts for specific times. Wikipedia — what you shouldn’t quote in your class paper — garnered a timetable of events from the aforementioned online “sources.” News sites — reliable sources — assembled information about victims from their online profiles.

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