Getting the Word Out

Though not explicitly awarded for online coverage, the New Orleans Times-Picayune received a Pulitzer in 2006 for its Hurricane Katrina coverage. Of course, following the storm, the paper was only publishing online for days at a time, so the Pulitzer was in many ways a legitimization of the practice. The Times-Picayune site NOLA.com also became a hub for displaced residents looking to connect with loved ones or discuss the disaster. The citizen journalism that sprung up there, while maybe unique only for the scale of its subject, was also heralded for its value.

The effectiveness with which the paper covered the natural disaster on the Internet is just one example of how online journalism can respond to similar catastrophes with unparalleled success. Blogs break news all the time, but never are they more ahead of the curve (nor is Twitter) than when a natural disaster strikes. Following a recent minor earthquake in California, people had texted messages about feeling the tremors while they were still occurring. That speed simply can't be matched by other delivery methods, and in such a situation just a few minutes of advance notice can be profoundly valuable to citizens.