Live webchat: social media and the riots

The use of social media during the riots by those involved and those affected sparked wide-ranging debate amongst users of platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger as well as at the highest levels of government. Analysis as part of our Reading the Riots study shows how BlackBerry Messenger was the communication tool of choice for many rioters , while suggesting that networks like Twitter were put to a parallel use to help organise community events, clean-up operations and to report on the disorder by communities directly affected. But was social media's overall role in the riots a positive or a negative one? In a live discussion we asked for your views on this topic and heard from people who used social and digital media in response to the events in August: • Who benefitted most from social media during the riots? • How can we reconcile the negative and positives of social networking to improve the response to future incidents? • Could calls to restrict social media access in such situations be justified? Joining the thread to discuss their views on the use of social media around the riots were: • Dan Thompson , who runs artistsandmakers.com and with @riotcleanup organised cleaning operations after the riots • Gaz Corfield , editor and founder of The West Londoner , which used its website and social media to report on rioting in west London • Charlie Beckett , director of POLIS , the media think-tank at the LSE • Commenter Choirlover , who used @tottenhamchoir to share local information and news and set up @tottenhamgig to raise funds in the aftermath of the riots • Casey Rain , also known as S-Endz is a vocalist, producer and songwriter from Birmingham, and a member of critically acclaimed Brit-Asian band Swami. He set up the Birmingham Riots 2011 blog to provide real-time updates during the riots • Maleena Pone , a freelance multimedia journalist, presenter and digital publicist. She has worked with community news groups and independent production companies to create socially inclusive content with an alternative narrative to mainstream media • James Ball , a data journalist for the Guardian's investigations team who worked as a Reading the Riots researcher • Ruth Turner , by day a web producer, blogs at Silver Street Social in her spare time. All views expressed are her own. We added points to the discussion sent to the @guardian Twitter account under the hashtag #readingtheriots and via our Facebook page .