"Today, the ability for anyone with a computer and a connection to the Internet to disseminate news and information is shaking the foundations of the news business. Traditional news organizations are competing both online and off with thousands, potentially millions, of people who are telling stories ranging from global to personal."
--Dwight Silverman,
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Please don't tell me that Dwight Silverman thinks this is new wisdom.
News has always been viral: the original vector is typically the event itself or the mainstream media's reporting of it. After that, it's been oral and sometimes written replication between people that passes the news on.
The only difference, today, is that the written form is likely to take an electronic medium, rather than paper. When's the last time you wrote a letter to someone, except for maybe that once-a-year Christmas mailing?