James Surowiecki, the author of The Wisdom of Crowds, argues that people, when we act en masse, are smarter than we think.

He suggests in this TED talk that the 2005 tsunami, when YouTube video, blogs, IMs and txts carried the news and preserved moving personal stories from the tragedy was the moment when social media became an equal player in the world of news-gathering.

Thanks to Elaine for the link to this talk.