In past blog posts, I have written about the influence that social networking sites had on the revolutions that are happening in the Middle East and Africa. Secretary Albright also mentioned the usefulness of these tools at her recent lecture. However, little attention has been played to social media in the aftermath of the earthquake that recently hit northern Japan. Personally, I had watched that popular YouTube video of the mayor of Minami Soma City asking the international community for help in distributing necessary goods and was drawn its ability to put a personal narrative into tragic national disaster. After watching the video, the implications of the earthquake and the affects of the damaged nuclear power plan felt more real.
This story by PBS’s MediaShift collected stories from several earthquake survivors or media addicts and explains how social media cites, like Facebook and Twitter, was able to help them find survivors or establish more intricate systems to do so. While I had read many articles on the situation in Japan and about the government’s response to the nuclear reactors, this piece took a different approach and focused on the efforts of individuals. I enjoyed reading this collection of narratives, because I think it does a good job of capturing the essence of social media. Individuals are asking to share their opinions of day-to-day interactions or experiences. These profiles show the importance of collecting small pieces of information of individual users and the implications this can have on larger movements, like rescue missions and revolutions.
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