Some observations about coverage of the Chch earthquake.
I’ve been away since Friday without much access to technology. No laptop or twitter (the app on my blackberry has stopped working). Facebook, email and text ok.
The quake woke me (as it did many others). I was in Wanaka. It was the biggest I’ve ever felt. Rolling and swaying. Seemed to go on forever.
Was paralysed. And a bit scared. Afterwards I went to facebook and put up a wee, slightly plaintive message (4.40am). Got an instant reaction from Chch, Wgtn and Nelson. In Chch the messenger said the quake was still happening, which is when I got an inkling it was bigger there.
I went to the Stuff, NZ Herald and RadioNZ websites on my Blackberry. Nothing. I went to the GNS website to see what sort of quake it was. Nothing. I then turned on TV in the motel and got CNN with a Breaking News banner telling me there was a massive quake centred near Chch.
Someone on Facebook told me there was something up on Geonet. So I went there. They said 7.4 magnitude. I considered ringing someone up. Wasn’t sure who. Didn’t know the extent of it. Lay awake and worrying until I felt I could ring people up at home.
Had to leave early to go up a mountain with child.
Saw some more messages on Facebook about RadioNZ being slow off the mark.
But by the time I got up the mountain there was live TV coverage and the Radio was full of it. And during the day I kept tabs on what was happening by the live footage and breaking news banners on both TV channels. It was a big day for our emergency services and media with the tragic plane crash in Fox Glacier as well.
The live coverage went on late into the night and again on Sunday morning. Impressive.
It may have taken a few hours to get up and running but both TV channels and radio seem to have done a good job. Live electronic media is critical at a time of emergency.
I think ours pretty much did us proud and hats off to the decisions made by both TV channels to send staff to Chch, to call people in and to take regular shows off air and go live through the day. It was warranted. And along with the countless other I add my thoughts to everyone affected.
I’d also like to give credit to Telecom for being onto it and ensuring that there were regular updates during the day about the state of telecommunications particularly for emergencies. I think our telecommunication carriers generally did a good job of ensuring people were able to be in contact with each other.
I would however say two things.
1. Twitter and Facebook (and possibly other social media) have become critical at a time of emergency. I suspect that’s how many loved ones contacted each other, especially if they had an app on their mobile phone (and the electricity was out). People were able to swap their experiences, express their frustration and horror and support each other, as well as provide valuable up to date info throughout the day. So that tells us how important mobile coverage is. Not just for calls and texts.
2. CNN is still King of breaking news (in conventional media)
Below is one of the tweets which will have assisted people follow the twitter conversation during yesterday (and today). The hashtag is the most important thing as it allows you to search Twitter and aggregate your content to follow the conversations.
Note: It was put up at 5.52am and was retweeted 100+ times, which means it will have reached thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people.
Please help us report this story. Contact @breakingnewseds if you’re in Christchurch or elsewhere in New Zealand and have quake info #eqnz Saturday, 4 September 2010 5:52:37 a.m. via breakingnews.com
- Top Tweet
- 100+ Retweets
PS: For those of you who haven’t been following, I have written a series of posts titled the news is crap. In this case it isn’t.
Big news and well covered
Your comments re: Twitter & Facebook now being essential are very true.
Do think that TVNZ were very slow off the mark, even just before 8 they were still rerunning an agricultural show about lambing.
I’ve writting a post about the development of the #eqnz hashtag you may enjoy: http://www.cats-pyjamas.net/2010/09/social-media-use-in-a-crisis-eqnz-which-hashtag-prevails/
Man, it’s pretty bad that they are now going to get all that wind
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AlJazeera were pretty quick off the mark in reporting it too. That’s where I first saw it mentioned when I woke in Auckland just after 6pm. Don’t know if they were onto it earlier.
What I found frustrating about the media coverage was that it wasn’t localised enough even though it was running constantly. I saw photos of flooded roads and didn’t know which suburb was flooded. Photos of crumbled buildings without reference to which street. Maybe that was to stop rubber necking. I don’t know. But some of the pictures were too fast to guess the street and it was hard to identify from damage. We were told the inner city was cordoned off but not shown a map of the no go zone.
I would’ve liked a suburb by suburb break down of which areas had power, where traffic lights were still down, who doesn’t have water still, whether there were areas where it was now okay to have showers, flush the toilet because the sewarage/storm water was okay – I still don’t know if that’s the case.
Also the media coverage that “fatalities still a possiblity” was sick-making. It’s like they were all crossing their fingers they could report a death.
I do have one criticism.
At the same time as a scrolling message telling people not to use their cell phones as communication channels needed to be kept clear for emergency communications, the TV networks are telling people to send in videos.
There was a bit of a conflict between public service and their commercial interests. So although the media plays a vital part in situations like these, I don’t think it should be ignored that they may well, and often do, prioritise their commercial interests over the public good.
TVNZ was embarrassingly slow. TV3 not much better. Got up early at about 6am and learned of the quake. I rushed to the news to see details. There were none. As far as I could tell, TVNZ finally got its act together by nine-ish. Shocking, in my view. The patchy coverage between 6 and 9 was risible. Some bewildered stringers saying meaningless nothingness. No advice. No critical questions about injuries, damage, risks and responses. No, I saw some chump standing in a street saying “I am standing in XXX Street. Behind me is a theatre. It was a place where people went to see shows. Overhead there are helicopters. You can see people behind me taking photographs.” Seriously. I rang some Australians at about 8ish and they had lots of details because Sky Australia had flipped to continuous coverage. In disbelief I flicked TVNZ back on and discovered it still wasn’t cutting over to the quake story. Unbelievable. Australian news editors clearly saw an unfolding news story that would be of interest to NZers and Australians. Our own government owned channel couldn’t be arsed or motivated or savvy enough to respond. I think when the dust has settled and we start looking back at the events of this weekend, the appallingly sluggish response of our main TV channel will come into focus.
Whoa
I didn’t realise that for 3 hours the news showed SFO 
That does sound pretty embarrassing. Especially since news this big doesn’t happen in the country that often. I thought they’d be hungry for it! 
I think some people on this site will never be pleased with anything TVNZ does. There are a number of things I could say to UO, but I’ll keep it to one thing. The TV people in Christchurch who brought you the pictures throughout the day, continuously from 8.30am, and prior to that with newsbreaks, did so while they had little or no communication with their families. They left their homes and families in the dark of the early morning, largely unaware of the extent of the damage to their own properties, and in every single case did not return home until the dark of evening. They did so because they are professionals, and so that people around the country could see and listen to the experiences of their fellow Cantabs. They were no better or worse than many public servants who stepped up through the day. They worked out of a damaged building. And they got up again today to do exactly the same. Over 900,000 people watched their work at 6pm. Countless more watched during the day.
There was no water in the news building in Christchurch. It must have been a hard day.
And yet all of the people I spoke to thought it was too much. 24 hour coverage locally may have been warranted but here in Auckland – no.
National Radio got it together pretty quickly, and were relaying the advice from the authorities. Radio, IMO, is the first place to check in such an emergency. Relatively low-tech, and mobile. I don’t know why people need the TV pictures to go with it as quickly. In such an emergency, IMO, more people in the affected area are likely to be able to tune into a (battery) radio, than just about any other media.
Not just battery radios Carol, almost all cell phones over $150 these days come with FM radios, just plug in your headphones/hands free.
@Draco – I thought the constant coverage was great and slow starts aside they did a good job.
Agreed radio is best for the survivors and fantastic
Pictures are good and paint a thousand words
Only if you weren’t in the disaster area, they without power would need to conserve their batteries.
My overseas rellies knew more than I did. They were the ones who told us there were collapsed buildings in the inner city. We had no power until about 2pm so it wasn’t until we got the TVNZ news coverage that we started to get an understanding of how serious it was.
Clearly I should be upgrading my cell phone.
I’m still checking Stuff regularly for the rolling update. My office building is still in the cordoned area. It was from Stuff today that I learned we can have showers and baths. Before that we were told to conserve water and that the waste water system was strained.
Isn’t it recommended for people’s emergency/disaster packs, that they incude a battery radio & working batteries? Yep, that’s what it says here:
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/emergencymgmt/preparedness/preparedness.html
And, also, hasn’t there been some hassle with Iphones, getting an FM radio included?
The wind up AM radios like they have in Africa are the one bomb. No batteries to replace, no plugs.
I have a disaster kit with a short wave radio and batteries. Great stuff, just remember to replace the batteries from time to time so that they don’t go soft and leak…
I found Nat Radio best, couldnt help but think as Carter used the interview to ask for NP to keep up the good work and send out a few crucial messages, that they (Govt) previously didnt value that radio station very highly