The amount of information, detail and horror is astounding. In just a few clicks I can watch video interviews with Haitian people who survived the earthquake and are now living among rotting corpses, with no food and unsanitary living conditions. And thanks to new media, I can see the devastation in high definition – instantly.
As off-putting as watching all of this makes me feel, the changes in media have made so many good things possible. People are tweeting updates, posting information about missing and found loved ones, and donating money to relief efforts by dialing a few numbers on their cell phones.
So here I sit in my living room, scanning through photos posted five days ago – only a few days after the earthquake. The photos showed dead bodies covered in cloth, people crying, destroyed buildings. But perhaps the most gruesome image I saw was the image of a dump truck pouring bodies into a mass grave. It leaves me wondering how people like me are supposed to feel knowing that we have the ability and comfort to watch this tragedy happen while so many suffer.
But I’ll take a step back and examine the good things that new media has done to help us in the wake of such a tragedy. New media and the numerous capabilities of the internet have allowed us to do many things to help those who are suffering. The donations via text messaging is just one form. After the earthquake wreaked havoc on so many families in Haiti, websites sprung up for people to sponsor Haitian children. These websites allow people to donate to specific types of relief such as funding for clean water and food.
Though technology was advanced enough that I was able to watch the 9/11 terrorist attack live in 2001, new media was still in beginning stages. One of the main differences that we see today is how new technology has taken us into the moment from the perspectives of people who experienced both the before and after. When journalists went in after the 9/11 attacks, we saw a lot of the tragedy from the perspective of journalists and news media. The situation with Hurricane Katrina was very similar in that sense. Yes, we were able to get journalists in the area to report on what was important to the people who experienced the tragedy. The difference now is that those people who are experiencing the tragedy in Haiti are sharing that experience more directly with the online and mobile audience. Because of the new media abilities, we are receiving information from people without the interference of a middleman.
I first learned about the earthquake from the NPR application on my iPod Touch the same day it happened. To have instant access to information in the palm of my hand – literally – is an enormous turnaround in the way that we send and receive information. Now that we have this ability, it might be a good time to consider pulling traditional journalists out of Haiti so that they aren’t using what few resources are available. We’ll still get coverage about what’s going on without adding to the problem. There will be room for more traditional journalism coverage later.
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