"When a gunman began firing inside an academic building on the Brown University campus, students didn't wait for official alerts warning of trouble. They got information almost instantly, in bits and bursts - through phones vibrating in pockets, messages from strangers, rumors that felt urgent because they might keep someone alive. On Dec. 13 as the attack at the Ivy League institution played out during finals week, students took to Sidechat, an anonymous, campus-specific message board used widely at U.S. colleges, for fast-flowing information in real time."
"An Associated Press analysis of nearly 8,000 posts from the 36 hours after the shooting shows how social media has become central to how students navigate campus emergencies. Fifteen minutes before the university's first alert of an active shooter, students were already documenting the chaos."
Nearly 8,000 Sidechat posts in the 36 hours after the Brown University shooting captured students' real-time reactions and information flow. Posts began about fifteen minutes before the university's first active-shooter alert, documenting chaos and uncertainty across campus. Students posted while sheltering under library tables, crouched in classrooms and hallways; some messages came from wounded students, including a selfie captioned #finalsweek. Posts posed urgent questions about lockdowns, the shooter's location and whether it was safe to move. Authorities later identified the suspect, who was found dead in New Hampshire of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and linked to another killing.
Read at Boston.com
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