The flood water is rising, the sandbagging needs to be started and you have no idea where the evacuation zone is; So what are you going to do it about it? Well if you are one of the thousands obsessive twitter users you’re going to jump on twitter and tell the world all about your current predicament!
Meet Robert (@BidgeeWagga). Robert is a Wagga Wagga resident who tweets about the goings about around of Wagga Wagga. He is the epitome of a citizen journalist. Through out the floods and in the aftermath he tweeted pictures and information for residents.
The above Tweet is an example of the short, but still informative, citizen journalism twitter has to offer. People are able to post pictures with descriptions that encapsulate the same amount of information as a news article would.
From this Tweet you get several peices of information:
- Location: West Wagga Wagga
- West Wagga is flooded
This is really the only information you need and it done inexpensively to the producer and freely for the consumer.
Another example of citizen journalism in the Wagga Wagga floods is @RiverinaFloods. This twitter took a more formal approach to its citizen journalism reports.
The direct nature of the tweet above matches the rest of @RiverinaFloods tweets. The state the facts and do not get caught up in emotion or additions. This is a perfect example of citizen journalism – stating the facts without going overboard.
Twitter is an excellent platform for citizen journalists and it will continue to be as it’s easily accessible and simple to use.
itsmaddiemann 