#Haiti, By Way of Twitter

Lauren Maynard — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:40:01 -0500

Social media helps information spread like wildfire, and there is no better example than what is happening today with information, relief, and fundraising efforts regarding the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Wyclef Jean, Yele, and the Red Cross

At about 3pm MST on January 12th, both Wyclef and the Red Cross had their first tweets about the earthquake. Within an hour, Wyclef had started tweeting about texting a code to Yele to donate $5 for relief efforts. The initial was response was so overwhelming that the Yele servers went down.

Wyclef tweeted throughout the night with news updates, re-tweets of those who donated then tweeted, and his travel plans. A 3 hour gap in his tweets represented the time he was flying to the Dominican Republic; from just before takeoff to the moment he landed, he let the world know what he was doing, what others were doing, and how we could help.

The Red Cross has followed suit, letting us know (with less frequency than @wyclef) that they committed $200,000, then moved that number to $1,000,000 and that we can help by texting to donate $10.

Twitter as a news feed

As power and phone lines are out across the country, many major media outlets have turned to Twitter to monitor what is going on. CNN created a list of twitter users with useful updates on the situation. Twitter has essentially become the communication hub for all live information out of Haiti.

It's almost impossible for me to write this article as every 30 seconds (this is in no way hyperbole) Twitter is giving me more information on relief efforts and Twitter accounts raising funds, as well as painting a picture of on-the-ground devastation.

The effects of crowdsourced reporting

Reporting through traditional media is often emotionless in its attempt to be unbiased, and the circumstances in which it breaks from this mold are always noteworthy. I distinctly remember watching Soledad O'Brien report on Katrina in 2005 with an emotion that was unusually humanizing (she later won an award for that work). She was overwhelmed, she was passionate, she was angry. I felt like, in the moment, I was on the ground with her in a way that I couldn't be with other reporters. Still, the world I saw in 2005 was through her eyes only.

At this moment, I can see Haiti through the eyes of hundreds of people through eyewitness accounts, both written and visual, updated the minute they themselves have seen it*. There is no comparison to this ability to see news real-time through the eyes of many. I'd love to hear about other experiences people have had with Twitter as a successful news source, and thoughts on how this will impact major news outlets.

*(I'd also note that this began to happen with Iran in 2009, but significant internet blockage prevented the same thoroughness of accounts).

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#Haiti, By Way of Twitter