Reader accounts of Asian disaster
Within hours of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Asia Sunday the BBC began soliciting and posting photos and eyewitness accounts from readers. The BBC has been publishing features like this for more than a year, but it's noteworthy that they're still doing this, as it shows the site and its users still find it valuable. And it is valuable.
In the case of the tsunami, the BBC has gotten thousands of e-mails. Not only did BBC get eyewitness accounts up quickly, but they complemented the BBC's own reporting nicely, offering a more personal perspective on the human side of the tragedy than most of the other articles published on news sites Sunday. Check out, for example, this gripping first-person account the BBC published from Troy Husum, a 28-year-old Canadian on holiday in Thailand, describing the devastation as the waves hit the town of Patong. That's 800 words, by the way -- the typical length of a newspaper column.
This is an excellent example of how tapping a news site's online community can enhance a story.
(CNN also posted an interesting list of short reader e-mails about the tsunami, and seattletimes.com is soliciting information from readers and published this e-mail a local man sent to his friends.)
Dec 27, 2004 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
Discussion
0 comments about 'Reader accounts of Asian disaster'Post a comment
Site Map
