Clearly not the happiest topic, but there was an interesting article in the Telegraph about how flickr, twitter and blogs spread the news of the terrorist events in Mumbai.
The same sort of thing was seen in the Californian bushfires, and I dare say the Thai blogs are full of news from inside Bangkok International airport.
The point is that the technology makes it simple to get the information out and enable the viral spread of news. It's not journalism, it's information, and while there are risks in rumours, misreports and too many reports overwhelming people it provides a channel to get the information out. No more can bad things happen behind closed doors - as we see in the rise of social media in China, or the Burmese governments hamfisted attempts to block uploads of mobile phone footage. If the death of privacy also means the end of secrecy that might be a deal worth living with
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