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Katrina was a fairly terrible natural disaster. But it turned into a horrific social catastrophe because of the response of the people in power, spurred on by their willingness to believe a hysterical, rumour-mongering media. (Journalists on the ground were often fiercely empathic and right on the mark, but those at a remove were all too willing to believe the usual tsunami of cliches about disaster and human nature.)

Aug

2009

Networking through Disaster : Local Knowledge

localknowledge.mercatus.org/...networking-through-disaster

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dissertation NOLA web2.0 katrina

Home to more than 3,000 charities and nonprofits, 270 neighborhood associations, and dozens of coalitions and community groups, New Orleans is in the midst of a civic renaissance. Frustrated with inept and inefficient local and federal governments, the people of New Orleans have harnessed the vast power of the Internet to network, fill their needs, and reach out to the traditional media. Armed with blogs, Twitter, Yahoo groups, and wikis, nonprofits and citizen groups are transforming grassroots community, organizing into a potent force that is helping to determine how New Orleans will be rebuilt.
Yet what makes post-Katrina New Orleans unique is the degree to which digital networks have become ensconced in physical communities, even four years later. This digital revolution is not limited to bloggers and tech geeks—many people who had barely used the Internet before Katrina for more than sending e-mails are some of the leaders of the grassroots digital activism movement.

Aug

2009

Virtual Tide - Local bloggers come together for the fourth annual conference to assess the state of the city since Hurricane Katrina. - News & Views - News Feature - Gambit - New Orleans

bestofneworleans.com/...Content

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dissertation NOLA katrina web2.0

Ask a New Orleans blogger why they started blogging and you'll get a variety of responses: wanting to provide a written record of their life, striking out against the perceived inaccuracies of the mainstream media, connecting with friends and the thrill of seeing their work on the Internet. But if you ask them to pinpoint their inspiration, many will say the levee failures and a basic human need to give and receive information.
Part of what inspired so many New Orleanians to become bloggers in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath was the high level of misinformation being promulgated by the national media, such as the levee failures being caused by improper maintenance by local officials.
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- Though local bloggers organize these conferences and the central theme is New Orleans' recovery and future, Rising Tide isn't for bloggers only, nor just for locals. Since the first conference, there has been an effort to get the information to a wider audience through live blogging, YouTube and other new media. Williams says he is promoting this year's event via Facebook and Twitter, two popular social media networks. Even if these efforts don't attract more attendees to the actual conference, it will create a permanent online record for anyone to access. Williams does, however, think this year's attendance could be the highest ever.
- "I had already started this media criticism on the Huffington Post, and being privy to what New Orleanians were hearing in our media — The Times-Picayune and WWL (radio) — versus what people were getting from the national media, I saw a great and growing disparity," Shearer recalls. "Since I had this national platform, I had the opportunity to fill that hole or correct that disparity and say, 'Wait a minute. That's not what we're finding out here.'"
  
  Shearer thinks there are many roles New Orleans bloggers play. Some are simply using their writing to vent frustration, a particularly therapeutic exercise during the long days and nights of the city's recovery. Others are part of an activist movement to bring attention to the plight of New Orleans, and some are trying to plug holes in the informational structure. Shearer casts himself with the third group, although he hesitates to call what he does citizen journalism.