Twitter Provides a Conduit for News from Quake-Devastated Haiti
[Source: San Jose Mercury News, by Patrick May; January 13, 2010]
"WE
NEED HELPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!" was one of the first tweets reportedly
sent by Haitian TV host Carel Pedre after his nation was hit by a 7.0
magnitude quake Tuesday afternoon. In the moments and hours that
followed, Twitter once again became the global go-to channel for
eyewitness reports, this time on the devastation in the capital of
Port-au-Prince. Just as significant, it also became a digital concourse
for those around the world hoping to help. One example: After
tapping the microblogging site early Wednesday to show people how they
could contribute to aid relief through a simple cell phone text, the
American Red Cross had raised $800,000 by midafternoon. Silicon Valley
spokeswoman Cynthia Shaw said the Red Cross had tested out Twitter
fundraising two years ago during Southern California's wildfires, "but
this really is the first time we've put it into effect this broadly,
and the results have been amazing." Hours before most traditional
news gatherers had arrived in Haiti to document the tragedy, citizen
tweets were flying from Haitians' cell phones and over Internet sites
like Skype, despite the nation's bare-bones communications
infrastructure.
Photos
of the dead and injured, along with the collapsed buildings that
entombed them, flooded sites such as TweetPhoto and Twitpic. And
around the globe, strangers weighed in with promises of financial
support and impromptu prayers compressed into haiku-like passages that
could fit on a cocktail napkin. "We are not as disconnected as
we might think we are," said Palo Alto entrepreneur and avid tweeter
Larry Chiang, who said the quake hit a Twitter nerve because it was
such a cataclysmic event. "When that happens, people want to
observe and participate," he said. "Social media allows them to come to
the aid of people struck by tragedy. It's what a community does."
Pushing
the velocity of bad news to new highs, Twitter continued Wednesday to
connect the world with the devastating earthquake in Haiti, translating
the tragedy into 140-character cries of desperation, broken sentences
of solidarity, and links to photographs too heartbreaking for words.
