Social media major tool in disaster response

submitted by Janine Rees

technology.inquirer.net - Cynthia D. Balana - June 15, 2012

   AP FILE PHOTO, Japan earthquake

HONOLULU—Backed by an array of “citizen journalists,” social media have become critical tools in coping with natural disasters, particularly in disaster-prone countries like the Philippines, according to experts from the United States and Japan.

Pictures and stories about the tsunami that killed over 200,000 people in a dozen Asian countries in 2004, Hurricane “Katrina” in the United States in 2005, Tropical Storm “Ondoy” in the Philippines in 2009, the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011 point to a wealth of information supplied by “citizen journalists” in times of calamities.

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