Social media and the disaster in Haiti

   
 
By Danielle Modzelewski from Affect Strategies in New York

 

The juxtaposition of the panel discussion I attended about the devastation in Haiti to the glamorous building the panel was held in could not have been more apparent. Entering the New York Times building for the first time did not prepare me to see the images I was about to see and the stories I would hear for the next two hours.

 

The panel discussion focused on Twitter and how it was able to help with the disaster in Haiti. For those on the panel, Twitter served as the prime medium to communicate need, danger and information to loved ones and the general public.

 

One of the anecdotes that strongly resonated with me was told by Jason Cone, communications director of Doctors Without Borders, and NBC reporter Ann Curry (@AnnCurry). Doctors Without Borders attempted to land a plane in Haiti but was unable to because the airport’s control tower was down. Doctors Without Borders started tweeting about this from the USA and was able to garner enough attention, including Ann Curry’s, that she, and others, were able to reach out to appropriate contacts and get the plane grounded in Haiti.

 

The presentation was peppered with other examples of family members, organizations and humanitarians getting in touch with others to ultimately help in the relief effort through Twitter. This brought up a lot of bigger questions regarding Twitter and its evolving role in our everyday life. As I exited the building I found myself wrestling with a series of questions:

§  Will Twitter soon become the primary way people get their news?

§  How much can you trust what you read on Twitter?

§  Do you have a moral obligation to act on what you read on Twitter?

 

Your thoughts on these questions are welcome, although like most hard questions, there isn’t one answer. This discussion brought light to another side of Twitter that I have not explored or experienced, but left the building feeling better than I did when entering it as I thought about all the people that came together through Twitter to ultimately help those in need.