Have traditional broadcasting services lost their usefulness in times of global emergencies? Travelers stranded by the volcano crises in Europe may answer a resounding “yes.”

CNN, BBC, New York Times, International Herald Tribune and other news services proved to be impractical for stranded travelers who sought useful information. Searching for volcano updates while in Milan, Italy, I watched broadcasts from those news services which provided a view of the ash cloud only at the “forty-thousand foot level.” They were of little practical value to the thousands of us left on the ground.

Where could one find emergency accommodations? What were the options for ground travel? Where could one find a ride-share from Milan to Calais? Neither the BBC, nor CNN could answer these questions. But a couple of sources could: Twitter and the Facebook page, “When Volcanoes Erupt: A Survival Guide for Stranded Travelers,” created by Tod Brilliant, a savvy social networker from the small American town of Healdsburg, California, who was stranded in England with his pregnant wife.

After learning that my return flights from Milan to the United States were cancelled, I logged into Twitter on Sunday, April 18, and discovered a tweet referring to the page.  I joined the group which comprised some 125 members. By the time I happily departed Europe on Thursday, April 22, the group had exploded to some 1,600 plus members. Alternatively, desperate travelers could follow the Twitter hashtags #getmehome and #ashtag, among others to find practical travel information.

Every few minutes the Facebook group posted news in real time from people who were living the event. Sometimes every few seconds Tweeters added new posts. Yet, the BBC and CNN updated their Web sites and news casts only every 3-4 hours at best. Too little, too late, too slow.

No longer can the news services promise “up-to-the-minute” reporting. While the BBC announced the opening of Italian airports on Tuesday, April 20, with a promise of soon-to-be departing flights, this traveler saw the reality. Flight boards at Milan’s Linate Airport displayed “Annulat” (“Cancelled”) for hours well into the night. Expecting flights to be over capacity, I flew Lufthansa from Milan to Frankfurt in a Boeing 737 only two-thirds full. My United Airlines flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco had a noticeable number of empty seats. While news casts announced chartered busses that had already departed from Santander, Spain on a journey toward Calais, France, the social networks posted real-time announcements of open offers to share rides leaving Barcelona or Milan heading north.

On the social networks one could find offers to share a taxi, provide a clean bed, or to provide a meal for those who ran out of cash. Some networkers simply offered moral support: one pub offered a complimentary drink to travelers if they simply presented their air tickets; others sought a few minutes of company, offering to share a breakfast in Amsterdam, for example.

Traditional broadcasters do offer valuable information, yet they are unable to match the speed of social networks. Yes, the BBC or the New York Times can be followed on Twitter. They need to integrate more “iReporting,” for example, as CNN calls it, in order to remain relevant and to offer truly useful information. In this case, social networks were quicker to react and proved to be far more practical.