I thought this entry was interesting because it shows just how prominent and affective social media is in our culture. Information is spread throughout the world by the click of a few buttons. I know that when the east coast experienced the earth quake almost everyone I knew either tweeted or updated their facebook statuses about the quake. It has proven itselfto be an affective way to disseminate information extremely well. Social media is truly taking over.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Social Media State-by-State Guide for Hurricane Irene
I found this article on the New York Times Media Coder Blog. This entry is about a newly instated state-by-state social media guide to be used for news and conversation. A new Pew study found that 50 percent of people in the US use social media. Although at times things like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube can be used for phony and false information, people also turn to these outlets to be updated about news, videos, photos, and emergency information. This new social media platform is arriving with the recent damages caused by Hurricane Irene. The state-by-state guide offers Twitter handles and Facebook pages for specific states, The American Red Cross, The US National WeatherService, and etc.
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Yes, it's amazing to think about the way that we use social media--especially in a crisis. I, too, learned about last week's earthquake through Facebook! I'd felt it, but thought it was just a large truck rolling by or something--it wasn't until I got online and saw all the stuff about the quake that I realized I'd actually experienced it first-hand a couple of hours before!
ReplyDeleteWhat's really interesting to me is that, like a lot of your classmates' posts here, this is another example of an institution trying to legitimize and structure the use of social media--something that users tend to reject. It'll be interesting to see whether this state-by-state guide ends up being used and taken seriously, or if people will just roll their eyes and do what they've been doing.