Like others getting into the news business, Snapchat is taking cautious steps as it expands from light-hearted fun into coverage of national tragedies.
When the shootings in San Bernardino, California unfolded this week, some processed the news of the mass murder and its aftermath through a montage of Snapchat posts from users in the area — firsthand footage of students in lockdown, police on the hunt, even the sound of gunshots, annotated with Snapchat-provided news headlines and updates.
It got a lot of praise as a new and powerful form of coverage, but it also startled plenty of users who weren't prepared for Snapchat's entertainment-heavy Live Stories to suddenly include "California Shooting" alongside scenes from "Holidays in NYC," "Copa do Brasil" and "UAE National Day."
(Business Insider collected screenshots of what it looked like. )
