We first realised something was up when we got a message from Cactus Kate. She lives in Hong Kong. It was about 5.30am.
So we turned on the TV ( we dont have Sky) TVNZ - nothing - TV3 - nothing. Turned on RNZ and they were still running a kids programme. The TV stations and most radio stations are now pushing out info but not RNZ. It is woeful.
RNZ did a special morning report with Mary Wilson and Kim Hill. It is like listening to Decima and Morta - their black delivery was too depressing to listen to. And Wilson does not know how to listen to people. She just knows how to ask people questions - there is a world of difference.
When people dont have power and cellphones become problematic due to the towers being knocked out - good old steam radio is where people will go to get info. So it is important that they continue to push out info.
The Herald started reporting early as did Stuff.
However it was online and especially Twitter that had the quickest most update info and first pics on the event. Soon the media was using the pics and info from Twitter.
It is an extraordinarily fast and organic way to get and spread info.
Hashtags - the search words from which info streams develop on an issue were problematic. The first to get a head of steam was EQNZ. The christchurchquake took a while to get some momentum. There are good and bad reasons for using both tags.
So instead of one key portal to info there are many.
But as we sat, fascinated how the story evolved and how it was handled we learned a little more about the power and the limitations of the online social media community in a major event.
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