By Matt Clyburn

By all accounts, the first person to break the news of Osama bin Laden’s death was @keithurbahn on Twitter. Urbahn is chief of staff to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and heard the piece of information from a “credible source,” according to his tweet at 10:25 p.m.

The leaked information came five minutes before President Barack Obama was scheduled to address the nation from the White House, and more than hour before the president eventually went on the air to make the formal announcement.

Bin Laden’s death, and the media frenzy surrounding the event, now calls into question the relevance of traditional news sources when Twitter and Facebook have both revealed the information and shared the world’s reaction to that information in the blink of an eye.

Twitter has become an increasingly reputable source of breaking news as the microblogging “tweet” feature allows news sources to quickly disseminate short pieces of information.

According to Twitter, users were sending 5,106 tweets per second at the news event’s peak, the second highest amount in the company’s history. The evening also played host to the highest sustained rate of tweets per second. Between 10:45 p.m. Sunday and 2:20 a.m. Monday users sent an average of 3,000 tweets per second.

Several CCSU students turned into journalists for the evening by retweeting and sharing new information with their followers.

Journalism major Derek Turner was one of the first to learn of Obama’s scheduled address.

“Everyone be talking about an #ObamaAddress at 10:30 p.m…Getting me curious. #HomeworkCanWait,” Turner said.

Once Urbahn broke the news,  Turner said, “The United States of America has the body of Osama Bin Laden…Multiple Sources are reporting.” In another tweet, “No focusing on any homework right now…#OsamaIsDead.”

After learning of celebrations happening at college campuses across the country, Turner said he wished there were similar happenings on the CCSU campus.

“Obama knows what it’s like to live in #Vance, people yelling outside at all hours of the night…#CCSU,” Turner said.

“I learned of the announcement via twitter and was glued to the computer the entire night,” Turner said. “I follow mostly sports personalities, but everyone was commenting on the bin Laden news, all Americans. Everyone was re-tweeting everyone, pictures and news was spreading throughout the world faster than I have ever seen.”

Political Science major Matthew Kitson tweeted late Sunday night, speculating that the presidential address could be about the capture of Osama bin Laden. After retweeting several sources that confirmed bin Laden had been killed, Kitson commented on the gravity of the event.

“As a political science major, along with journalism minor, this is incredibly exciting,” Kitson said. “Obama also will announce a 50 state tour where he will high five everyone,” in another tweet.

After the dust had settled and more details had been released, Kitson commented on an experience at CCSU.

“Days when Ned Lamont came to my class made me want to get into politics and political science, but…it’s days like yesterday that make me want to do more with my journalism minor,” Kitson said.

“While news anchors were not able to really say anything, being tight lipped, it started streaming through twitter on Osama,” Kitson told The Recorder.

SGA President-elect Eric Bergenn also took to Twitter to comment on bin Laden’s death.

“This is only a moral victory, but to the families of 9/11 victims it means so much more,” Bergenn said. “Good day for USA.”

Twitter users can also keep track of campus news by following @TheRecorder.