Many people see Snapchat as something that young people (millennials specifically, although it’s aging up) use as either a time waster or as a way to communicate and primarily be silly at the same time. Or you view it as the “sexting” app.

Others (like the advertising/marketing community) are split as to its effectiveness for business purposes and turning a profit…which is a whole other post 😂

The goal for me here is to try and show how Snapchat is changing the world of news and live reporting.

Let’s start with this: it’s STILL the only social media app/platform that has its own actual news division. And this isn’t a team of college students sitting in cubicles clicking a mouse to decide if a story should trend to user feeds or not (ahem…Facebook). It’s a team full of journalists and news veterans that’s been headed up by former CNN reporter Peter Hamby for the last two years. They’ve been covering all kinds of stories during that span, including some of the best (and most objective) pieces that ran during and about the 2016 presidential campaign.

But their REAL major impact is when it comes to breaking news, like the horrific attack in Ft. Lauderdale today. Take a look at the images scattered throughout this post, which are all screenshots from “snaps” (10 sec videos) that Snapchat users filmed in real time during the attack. When newsworthy situations happen, there obviously aren’t normally reporters in the middle of it in real time…

Until now.

Snapchat HQ has a way where they can pull users’ snaps from anywhere at anytime and create “Stories” that are full of compelling (and sometimes chilling) content.

There have been other instances like this where the app has been used by people to help document what’s happening in real time. The shootings in San Bernardino and in the streets of Dallas would be other examples. Every example isn’t always negative but those are certainly the ones that stand out, similar to most any other news medium.

Think about if this type of technology was around in the past, like at the Munich Olympics, at Columbine, or being used by OJ in the Bronco chase. In particular those who remember watching the OJ chase will remember how crazy it seemed, and how surreal it was to see the entire thing play out on live TV with cameras at each and every turn. Looking back on it now, it was the advent of the type of live news coverage that’s so common these days.

With these thoughts in mind, I would ask this of you, the reader, whether you’re a Snapchat user or not…

How do you FEEL about this new type of access given to anyone with a smartphone? Is it a positive, negative, neither…both?

Thanks for reading.