Social Media Continues to Play Critical Role in Relief Efforts

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The fascination with social media continues. Recent events such as the tragedy in Haiti served to highlight the growing importance of social media as a source of information, offering first hand accounts and details of the events as they unfold. What's new is the fundraising element that allowed people to donate money immediately and provide direct access to action. See Tim Wu's story for details on how technology was a key factor in disaster relief donations.

On Twitter and You Tube, the recovery efforts following the tragic earthquake in Haiti continue to be the main subject of interest. Here are some excerpts from a recent Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism report:

For the week of January 18-22, fully 58% of the news links on Twitter were about the tragedy in Haiti according to the New Media Index produced by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That was almost twice as many as the number of links relating to the next four largest Twitter subjects combined.

Most of the Twitter activity involved users linking to mainstream news articles about the recovery effort. At the start of the week, religious and diplomatic questions drove that narrative. By late in the week, how cell phones and text messages were aiding the relief effort became the focus. Twitter users often link to technology-based stories; the connection of these gadgets and the quake's aftermath seemed like a natural association.

On YouTube, all five of the most-viewed news videos of the week consisted of raw footage of the destruction caused by the earthquake. Viewers were able to see the extent of the devastation on their own computer screens despite being many miles away from the actual event.

There were miraculous accounts on how technology factored into rescue efforts. A significant amount of attention was paid to a Wired story about a man who used his iPhone to stay alive following the quake. Dan Woolley, an American filmmaker, was trapped under a pile of rubble when he used various applications on his iPhone to assist his survival. Among other things, the iPhone helped illuminate the area around him and gave him instructions on how to treat wounds. Woolley even set an alarm to go off every 20 minutes to prevent him from falling asleep in case he went into shock.

A similar theme drew interest with the appearance of another Wired article about relief workers using social networking to help their efforts and how some of the trapped victims were able to send distress calls via text messaging.

"The crisis in Haiti is showing ‘new and unprecedented' uses for social media in humanitarian response," commented the2noelle.

Read the PEJ (Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism) report for more information.