California quake - brought to you by Twitter

So as most folks on the continent now know, Mexico, Southern California and Arizona were shaken by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake earlier this evening.

Or do they?

Whenever a given news event is significant enough, many of us will almost automatically remember where we were when we first heard it. Because the very media that inform us are in an accelerating state of flux, we also remember how we heard it.

To wit, radio and newspapers dominated coverage of the end of World War II. By the time Apollo 11 touched down on the moon, it was television's turn to shine as the world's emergent medium of record. Many Internauts first heard of Diana Princess of Wales's death in September 1997 via the Web. These days, Web 2.0 is rewriting the rules and shifting our collective attention yet again. As a result, events like tonight's earthquake often break not via traditional media, but via Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Every medium has its moment. One wonders if Twitter is having its moment now. And whether this means it'll still be our first line of recognition a few years down the road.

Your turn: Where did you first hear about this quake? What does that tell you about media today?