The AP has an article about newspapers seeing text messaging as a gathering threat. The "thumb generation" is sending news, rumors and gossip around the globe in real time without newspapers getting a piece of the action. The Madrid bombings are cited in the story:
Nina Calarco, editor and publisher of southern Italy's Gazzetta del Sud, said information spread through cell phone messages contributed to Socialist candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's election as Spanish prime minister.
The Socialist Party was able to gather a huge crowd for a rally by spreading the word through text messages.