25

3:30 a.m.

I'm curious. I've been watching CNN via satellite for the last 30 minutes covering the quake in Haiti.

It's not what I'm used to from my media.

They have been using Facebook and Twitter as primary image sources for showing the damage. Some guy is running around in the studio, dragging the camera man behind him, and asking the camera to focus in on different computers. As he is doing this, you can hear other computer operators beckon him to their station, where they have the next good photo, or the next good bit of news.

It's disorganized, unprofessional, and beautiful.

Never was a source cited, and there's no guarantee for the validity of the claims, but it's there - and I'm watching.

A little background info

Yesterday, I came home from school and crashed. Hard. A bad mixture of jet lag, exhaustion from travels, exhaustion from work, and stress from both my desire to be a good teacher as well as a good employee (unfortunately, two very different pressures) left me sapped.

I woke up (for the third time this week) at 3 a.m. and now, in what otherwise would have been a restless night,

I'm stuck to the tv.

5:00 a.m.

In the wake of this disaster, the first tools used to describe what was happening were interesting.

At first, all the photos shown by CNN were acquired via Facebook and Twitter.

Later, they began reporting the tweets from one man in Haiti. They showed up as text on the screen in the broadcast.

Eventually, they got a reporter in the room who knew the area. She gave a report about Haiti using Google satellite images. As she discussed slums and different areas within the country, they were surfing around on Google Earth and sharing it with the viewers.

Finally, a reporter finally showed up. How? Skype.

He mentioned that shortwave radio would have been used in the past, and halteringly admitted that ..."I guess, now we have this." While the news is bleak, and I worry for the citizens of Haiti, his claim made me smile.

Apparently, the telephones were down, and it was all being reported via the tools we know so well. No fancy cameras (They've just stared coming online as I write) and no large budget productions.

It was firsthand reporting, quickly accessible, and really pretty cool.

I don't quiet know how the Facebook photos and Tweets were acquired. Maybe they were actually photos taken by journalists and written by journalists (otherwise, I don't know how CNN was gaining such quick access...they must have already been "friends"...?) but it was still interesting.

I'm guessing maybe they were using laptop technology with satellite internet connections. If power went down, if phones went down...

Anyway, it's been an interesting viewing experience, in what otherwise would have been an otherwise sleepless night...

Now, I've got to go figure out that debate topic for my Animal Farm students.