The internet is a fabulous source of news. And it’s now becoming so ubiquitous that you can find out local things that you might never find out otherwise. Here’s a slightly sad example.
Harry is a local celebrity. He’s never far from the bar of our local pub. He lives on our road and you only ever see him either in the pub or walking between the pub and his house. He’s very old though. And very ill. Whenever you don’t see him around for a few days you always wonder if he’s died. But he always pops up again.
Except, now he won’t. Harry died yesterday. I saw an ambulance going down the road, but I didn’t think of Harry (who I vaguely assumed to be indestructible) until I read this LiveJournal entry. And I found that through Planet Balham, which aggregates various new sources about Balham, including a Technorati search.
Without these, it would have been weeks before we realised what had happened. I can’t imagine Harry’s death being mentioned in any mainstream news medium.
The internet means you get your news quicker. Even if it’s bad news.