It almost feels as though the topic of how people are using social media during and after a disaster is becoming routine. But no disaster is routine. All disasters call for empathy, compassion, rationality, and action.
Today, social media is a center for expressions of grief, sharing news and information, as well as a place of hope. In the lightening fast world of journalism today, social media has become part of a multi-layered process of delivering information. One shining example of this is the website "Storify."
The concept behind Storify is brilliant. Collect and Curate social media in a digestible and relevant way. A group of journalists track the major events of the day on Tweeter, Facebook, and blogs through a process called curation. After stories, tweets, eye-witness images and videos are selected by the curator, the content is assembled and aggregated on the Storify site. The end result is content that is accessible, interesting, and easy to share.
Following Twitter feeds, on a disaster like the tornado in Joplin, MO., can be exhausting without the help of a curator.
It is easy to see where the process of curation is headed. Now it is incumbent for the mainstream media to follow the Storify example.