We have weathered the storm, literally.
Hurricane Irene—originally a category 2 storm, later reduced to category 1—made landfall Saturday near Morehead City in North Carolina, about 180 miles from Durham. Governor Bev Perdue issued a state of emergency declaration August 25 for all counties east of Interstate 95. The media focused in their far-reaching lenses on the storm and images of damage made the front page of nearly every major journalistic publication. Residents of east coastal homes kept their eyes glued to the television, awaiting news from their local stations about Irene’s progress.
Many others, however, simply tweeted.
This subset of the population were not logging onto their favorite social media sites out of indifference to the storm but rather to become more knowledgeable about its path, check on the welfare of other counties where friends and relatives might live, learn tips about steps for disaster preparation and discover Justin Bieber’s underwear preference (diaper, not boxers or briefs) all at the same time.
In today’s society, the popularity of smart phones has grown immensely and everyone from your local hobo to the president frequently updates their Facebook pages and twitter accounts.
Duke relies on a text message system and social media to notify its students and employees of breaking news often.
Paolo Mangiafico, director of digital information strategy, said he believes this is a change for the better.
According to the Pew Internet and Life Project, 50 percent of American adults use social media, 35 percent have smart phones and a whopping 78 percent are connected to the internet. Now, in your own personal experience, how often do you see people around you picking up the newspaper or watching CNN?
“It's a very powerful thing to be able to get first-hand reports of events close to home and around the world in almost real-time and in a tone that feels conversational,” said Mangiafico.
While publications and television stations give general overviews of the most pressing pieces of information of the day, your twitter account can be personalized to show only what you deem most important.
He made sure to caution readers—or rather, tweeters—to be wary of news read on social media sources. The speed with which they are updated indicate that not much analysis may have been done or, the source may not be the most reliable in a particular field.
“The things being reported haven't necessarily been researched and confirmed in the way a traditional news story would be,” said Mangiafico. “And that they might turn out not to be true or complete pictures of what happened.”
Organizations who take the wellbeing of their readership seriously usually set guidelines to counter this tendency. For example, Duke has set stringent guidelines for its social media.
Mangiafico added that the positives outweigh the negatives and that people would undoubtedly benefit from following organizations like Duke on social media to find the latest news about important occurances such as Hurricane Irene.
Pictures about the damage, video coverage of affected Duke facilities and logistical updates relevant to all Dukies can be found on Duke’s facebook and twitter account (@WorkingatDuke).
All in all, one can describe the social media as bitter-tweet.
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