Hurricane Isaac coverage shows the promise of a hybrid model for news » Nieman Journalism Lab
As I experienced the storm firsthand from my new hometown in southern Mississippi, I saw the emergence of a hybrid form of media coverage. It involved traditional news organizations — newspapers, TV, and radio — offering up-to-the second updates on the storm, which while only a Category 1 hurricane led to massive power failures, flooding, and damage. These news organizations (both local and national) offered traditional reports through text stories on their websites and through lists of such things as road and school closings — the updates any news organization worth its salt would have provided in the old days. But they also used Twitter, Facebook, and in some cases their own apps to provide weather updates, explain the science of the storm, and help people make decisions about whether to evacuate or ride out the storm in areas where evacuations weren’t mandatory. To cover the full impact of the storm, they offered still and video images shot by professionals side by side with raw footage from residents that, while perhaps less polished, still told a story and told it well.
