Disaster coverage via mobile devices

Professor Sree Sreenivasan (@sreenet) of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and contributing editor at dnainfo.com discusses the impact of new media with Daljit Dhaliwal.

Video from just minutes after the quake, by a former music editor for The Source Magazine and Vibe, Erik Parker, who captured this on an iPhone and uploaded it to YouTube.



More from Parker:



Examples of traditional news operations responded to Haiti, through social media:

CNN's Tweet collection

Reuters list

Twitter's Haiti Feed

Global Voices Online -- "aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore."

Global Voices' coverage of Haiti
Global Voices' coverage of Chile

How an iPhone helped to save this American filmmaker's life:



Chile:

From the March 3 Washington Post:

"Authorities said hundreds of people are feared to have drowned. All told, the death toll in the quake stands at 795, with about 2 million people left homeless.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Santiago on Tuesday bearing satellite phones and the promise of extensive additional assistance."

From the Feb. 27 Huffington Post:

"The U.S. Geological Survey says eight Haitian cities and towns – including this capital of 3 million – suffered "violent" to "extreme" shaking in last month's 7-magnitude quake, which Haiti's government estimates killed some 220,000 people. Chile's death toll was in the hundreds.
By contrast, no Chilean urban area suffered more than "severe" shaking – the third most serious level – Saturday in its 8.8-magnitude disaster, by USGS measure. The quake was centered 200 miles (325 kms) away from Chile's capital and largest city, Santiago.
In terms of energy released at the epicenter, the Chilean quake was 501 times stronger. But energy dissipates rather quickly as distances grow from epicenters – and the ground beneath Port-au-Prince is less stable by comparison and "shakes like jelly," says University of Miami geologist Tim Dixon."