The Role of New Media in International Earthquake Recovery Efforts

While in the days, weeks and months following the earthquake in Haiti traditional news media worked to spread the news of the death and devastation faced by the people of Haiti, new news media outlets worked to spread a different message. Through social media outlets and the blogosphere, users became focused primarily on what could be done to help. International aid relief websites such as Doctors Without Boarders, The American Red Cross, and others set up Haiti earthquake relief donation links that were featured in numerous blogs, Twitter messages, and Facebook profile comments. In addition to the direct donation links, "Text to donate" numbers and text codes circulated like wild fire on these social networking sites, providing for the easiest and most immediate options to send direct donations. By January 27^th, over $29 million was donated for Haiti earthquake relief through text-donating alone which "shattered any record that [the Red Cross had] seen with mobile giving before."

As “links to donate” and “text to donate” messages sprang up all over Facebook and Twitter, competition between donation vehicles became an issue. The number of arguments regarding which donation vehicle was the most trustworthy and which of them spent donated money the most efficiently paralleled the number of donation promotions throughout these sites. In efforts to increase donations to the donation destinations that an individual Facebook and/or Twitter user supported, an astounding number of local event fundraisers were planned and executed in the months following the Haiti earthquake. The number of "Haiti Disaster Relief" events that took place at local bars, art galleries, restaurants, retail outlets and social clubs grew and grew as it became a trend. As more and more social network users got involved with planning and/or participating in these events, the more they wanted to know updates on relief activity. Soon, Facebook and Twitter updates were where many Americans went for their news on Haiti instead of the traditional news outlets. As exemplified by Anderson Cooper and CNN on their Twitter feed, social networking sites were managing the most up-to-date, real-time news on this topic.

Even Haitian Americans and Haitians in Haiti looked to Twitter and Facebook for updates on the health status of their loved ones in Haiti. While access to the internet was limited in Haiti, those who did have access looked to these social networking sites to confirm the whereabouts of their family and friends in Haiti and to post their own health conditions for their family and friends abroad. Inundated with these updates that included pictures, video, and descriptive reports, social network users were further moved to respond. And respond is what social networkers did for one of the most successful donation drives to U.S. non-profit groups in the name of a disaster in history.