Austin , Texas ( CNN ) -- Sohaib Athar was a 33-year-old IT consultant living in Abbottabad , Pakistan , last year when he settled in around midnight to get some work done . Then , something unusual happened in his quiet town . And , as many of us do , he took to Twitter to share . `` Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM ( is a rare event ) , '' he wrote . Unbeknownst to him , Athar was stepping into one of the year 's biggest news stories : the U.S. military operation that killed notorious terrorist leader Osama bin Laden . In the days that followed , he 'd become `` the man who live-tweeted Osama 's death . '' At the South by Southwest Interactive festival here on Saturday , Athar discussed that night , as well as how it thrust him into the still-emerging role of `` citizen journalist . '' So , does posting on Twitter about a big event really make someone a journalist ? Athar says yes -- even if he did n't think so at the time . `` The people who were talking , we were just trying to reverse-engineer what could have happened , '' he said . `` The media was not there at the time ... . `` We were just trying to see what could have happened because we knew the official story would probably not be the whole truth . '' Athar 's tweets may have been the first public account of the nighttime raid by the now-famous SEAL Team Six that killed bin Laden at his secret compound . But the significance of his posts would n't become clear until hours later , when President Barack Obama called a rare evening press conference to announce the news . In posts sometimes sprinkled with humor ( `` Go away helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter '' ) , Athar 's tweets evolved that night from his observations to messaging with a handful of other Pakistanis in Abbottabad and elsewhere to get to the bottom of things . And that , said Steve Myers , who studies media trends with the Poynter Institute , is what made him a journalist . `` Some people say tweeting about a helicopter does n't make you a journalist and I would agree with that , '' said Myers , who shared Saturday 's discussion with Athar . `` But the things he did next -- I think he acted very much in that way . '' Those things included photographing bin Laden 's compound , about a mile from Athar 's home , the following day and conducting his own interviews with neighbors about their experiences living there . In an era when mobile-phone owners walk around with a video camera in their pocket at all times and tools like Twitter , Facebook and YouTube make broadcasting the results quick and simple , people like Athar can turn into journalists without even knowing it , Myers said . Some critics of the concept of citizen journalism note that non-professionals are n't trained to properly filter and communicate news -- that we would n't trust a `` citizen doctor . '' But Myers notes that , in the case of accidents or emergencies , we do just that . `` It 's 'first-aid journalism ' or 'first-responder ' journalism , '' he said . `` Later , they 're going to hand it off to someone who has a more developed skill set , but they are similar skill sets . '' In the days that followed his soon-famous tweets , Athar got a look at the inner workings of parts of more mainstream journalism , and was n't always impressed . He was pressured to do exclusive interviews ( about information he shared on Twitter with the world , he noted ) , offered money for his story and watched as some international journalists painted what he said was an inaccurate picture of Abbottabad by only focusing on poverty-stricken areas and conservative Muslims there . One tangible result of his brief fling with spotlight ? The 750 or so Twitter followers he had the day before the raid swelled to about 105,000 -- before eventually settling in at around 70,000 . The urge to become an international news source , though , has not been strong . `` I think I only wore the hat of journalism for a few days , '' he said . `` And then I took it off . ''
Sohaib Athar was thrust into the spotlight last year by unknowingly tweeting bin Laden raid . The IT consultant was `` just trying to reverse-engineer what could have happened , '' he said . His Twitter activity puts focus on the role of citizen journalists in a digital world . Journalism expert says Athar became a journalist when he began digging for information .