Is it more invasive just because some of us don't have a press pass

An interesting prespective over at Media Shift which asks if journalist's photos from Haiti are an invasion of Privacy.

Michelle May,who has just returned from the country says that

a rumor is circulating among volunteers that we should remove any photos of our time at the hospital from Facebook and other websites, unless we had received permission to take photographs.

This ethical debate is inspired by the ability of anyone to easily create and distribute media such as photos, videos or blog posts. Professional media have long been training their cameras and mikes on the victims of natural disasters, but now anyone can do it, too. Is it more invasive just because some of us don't have a press pass?

A feeding frenzy

It's over a month since the tragic events in Haiti and Polis Charlie Beckett is taking a look at the implications of the crisis for the media.

In his first piece he looks at the issue of attention surplus.Whereas many humanitarian disasters have the aid agencies crying out for media coverage,this one was quite the opposite

the real question is whether there were too many journalists in Haiti, getting in the way of the relief work. The sheer volume of media production suggested that this was a feeding frenzy.

says Charlie

Maybe this photo from AP sums it up

The money is running out -time to pull out of Haiti

A worrying trend maybe?

The New York Times reports that money worries and falling audiences will force news organisations to start pulling out of Haiti.

In an event of this magnitude, “you cover it first and worry about the money second,” said Paul Friedman, an executive vice president for CBS News.

But despite portable equipment that allows for filing and broadcasting via the Internet “makes it less expensive than it was even five years ago,”

CBS was “drawing down people as fast as we can, because the story is not as central as it was, and because we’ve got to start worrying about all the money we’re spending.”

Boy, this has been something it will take me long to shake out of my system.

Jon Snow has described reporting from Haiti as being hsi most toughest and harrowing assignment ever.

Writing on his Snowblog,the Channel 4 presenter says that

Even for those who did not live there, the living conditions are desperate....Boy, this has been something it will take me long to shake out of my system. It is in my pores. I smell of it. I cannot share my sleeping space with my boots or my socks. There is not enough water to wash anything.

Kershaw-stop framing Haitians as savages

Is the media's framing of the Haitian tragedy putting the citizens of the country is a bad light.

Yes says Andy Kershaw writing in the Independent this morning.

By concentrating on security issues,

this assumption that there is a security threat has gone completely unchallenged by an army of foreign press, equally unfamiliar with Haiti and the character of the Haitians. Indeed, TV reporters particularly, having exhausted the televisual possibilities of rubble, have been talking up "security", "unrest" and "violence" when all available evidence would indicate anything but.

The BBC's Matt Frei is to blame who says Kershaw

has been working himself up all week into what is now a state of near hysteria about "security" and the almost non-existent "violence".

adding that

Over the weekend we saw him anticipating an outbreak of unrest, standing before a crowd of thousands of hungry, humiliated Haitians as they waited, patiently and quietly, to be given rations by UN soldiers.

Mobile and social media hard at work on aid to Haiti

Besides producing coveerage of the disaster in Haiti,social media is also making a significant contribution to the aid programme.

According to the New York Times,

many Americans are reaching for their cellphones to make a donation via text message. And plenty of them are then spreading the word to others on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

adding that

The mobile donations are part of a larger surge of money flowing to the relief effort. The Red Cross said it had collected nearly $35 million as of Thursday night, surpassing the amounts it received in the same time period after Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Good use of multimedia by the New York Times

Some very good graphics here from the New York Times covering Haiti.

Entitled a closer look at the destruction from the air,it shows the devestation from above the Capital Port-Au Prince

You Tube footage of the Haitian earthquake

Here is some raw footage from You Tube on the Haitan earthquake

Images from Twitpic on the Haiti earthquake

Just picking up some real time images coming thru on Twitter from the earthquake in Haiti









Images via Hourly Press