Reporting On Gustav In A Social Media World

Posted at: September 1, 2008 at 10:49 am | By: Freddie Laker | 2 comments.
Filed under : Consumer Trends, Featured, Social Media

My heart goes out to the people who live in Louisiana who are probaby waiting in shelters and hotels in the surrounding areas praying with their families that their house is there when they get home.

I lost a home in 1992 to Hurricane Andrew and I can safely say it was devastating experience. I’ll never forget driving back into the area and how it looked like a bomb had gone off. Nothing was familiar except the odd street sign that let me know I was on the right track. The pictures I’ve seen from the damage Katrina did the last time it powered up through the gulf put even Andrew to shame (mainly through the flooding damage).

Reporting the news on location during these times is difficult to say the least and it’s hard to get first hand information, but a small group of Twitterers are online micro-blogging their way through the storm. It’s pretty interesting to watch people use this platform as a secondary news platform.

I’ve been watching http://twitter.com/MarkMayhew, although there are lots of others updating each other he’s the only one that appears to be riding the storm out. Good luck Mark Mayhew!

UPDATE: Visit http://search.twitter.com/search?q=gustav to check out all the inputs coming in on the storm. They were coming in at a rate of almost 15 a minute when I wrote this.

2 people commented on this post. Click here to add your thoughts.

  • http://www.chucksweblog.com/ Chuck Schaeffer

    My home was also heavily damaged from Andrew and I think from that experience I acquired a much deeper compassion for others in any natural disaster in any location (too bad I had to be personally affected before my compassion reached a new level, but I guess that’s just me.) I’ve also monitored Gustav as well as the Gustav Information Center (a collection of Web 2.0 tools), the government’s family notification portal (which is a lot like a family communication wiki), twitter and a few social media sites that seem to spring up just before the storm. Social media clearly has a significant opportunity to provide aid in disasters of all types. I expect the Gustav social media experience will be a learning exercise and stepping stone to new types of people who previously didn’t understand the power of these tools.

  • http://www.chucksweblog.com/ Chuck Schaeffer

    My home was also heavily damaged from Andrew and I think from that experience I acquired a much deeper compassion for others in any natural disaster in any location (too bad I had to be personally affected before my compassion reached a new level, but I guess that’s just me.) I’ve also monitored Gustav as well as the Gustav Information Center (a collection of Web 2.0 tools), the government’s family notification portal (which is a lot like a family communication wiki), twitter and a few social media sites that seem to spring up just before the storm. Social media clearly has a significant opportunity to provide aid in disasters of all types. I expect the Gustav social media experience will be a learning exercise and stepping stone to new types of people who previously didn’t understand the power of these tools.
"Take Me To Your Leader" focuses on trend watching in consumer behaviors, marketing, technology, and social media, but is often led astray by its eccentric authors and their love of music, traveling, random thoughts, and pirates.

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