Flood Victims Turn to Twitter

Ali Rosenberger

ATHENS, Ga. - In the past two weeks, Atlanta and its surrounding areas have seen anywhere between 5 to 20 inches of rainfall, at least twice as much as this time last year. TV and radio stations have been broadcasting updates and details daily to inform the public of damages and future forecasts.

Although TV and radio news maintain their audience, it is social media outlets that many are beginning to turn to as their primary news source. From Facebook updates to tweets on Twitter, people of all ages are exchanging all kinds of information through social media. With this constant flow of information—present 24 hours a day—these social media users expect their news organizations to keep up.

Many students at the University of Georgia are Atlanta natives and turned to Facebook and Twitter for information about their hometown during the flood.

“My family lives in Buckhead, and I knew they were being affected by the flood because of what I heard on the news,” said Kieva Hannon, currently in her fifth year at UGA. “Having to be in class every day and not with my family during such a hard time has been really stressful.”

Hannon said that she stayed updated with details about her area through personal tweets by her friends and neighbors still living in Atlanta. “Being able to see what was happening every minute through Twitter really gave me piece of mind throughout the whole thing,” Hannon said.

Because people are obtaining newsworthy information through outlets like Twitter and Facebook, news organizations are presented with a challenge: maintaining their audience by having the most recent and reliable news at any second, at any time of day.

TV Stations like WSB-TV even have Twitter sites.

“Watching the news on TV is reliable, but not all day long. Sure, I can turn on CNN and watch until they decide to switch to the topic that I am actually interested in,” said Brian Stearns, a UGA sophomore from Decatur, “but I don’t have the patience for that. I’d much rather go online and look at their website or their recent tweets to get the information I’m looking for,” Stearns said.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution posted flood updates via Twitter almost every hour during the primary days of the flood. From weather forecasts to school closings to missing persons, the AJC made sure to have up-to-date information that its audience could rely on.

Even now, in the days after the flood, the AJC continues to tweet information about repairs being done, missing persons, and even information on hazards like sinkholes caused by the excessive rainfall.

“The only reason I use Twitter is to stay updated with news. I can connect to it from my iPhone, and get updates all day of what’s going on or who’s doing what,” said Pam Griffin, a 44-year old mother and career woman originally from Marietta. “And what’s more is that I can follow a number of news sites at a time, unlike listening to a radio station or watching TV,” said Griffin.

“I have had to change my route to work twice since the flood because of road closings,” said Griffin, an insurance agent who commutes from Woodstock to Atlanta daily, “and I only heard about the closings before I actually stumbled upon them because of Twitter,” Griffin said.