International cable news here in Manila is pretty much 24/7 Tsunami News, though I see that one of my primary DC news haunts, NBC4, at the time of this writing, ranks one of the world’s deadliest natural catastrophes ever recorded as less important than flu shots and a church fire. What have you noticed about tsunami coverage on local TV in your area? Are there big red “ASIA TSUNAMI WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE” titles, or has the event been relegated to an international news footnote on how many Americans died?
Update: Well, whatever governs news priority seems to change the headlines every hour or so; I must have caught it at a bad time, because now it’s all tsunami and aid news, whereas my other DC news haunt, WJLA, currently has nothing at all on it. Plus, as Keith points out in comments, these are local news channels.
More coverage of this disaster, including firsthand material:
- Hellmut Issels’ photos from Phuket
- Real video of heavy surge hitting and engulfing Patong Beach (via MeFi)
- “Tsunami” tag on Flickr
- Animated simulation of tsunami’s spread
- Collected LJ tsunami posts
- WaPo writer’s firsthand account (those last three via Kottke)
- Wave of Destruction has a growing collection of tsunami-related media links.
- Before/After satellite photos of tsunami-stricken areas.
- Amateur video from Banda Aceh, Indonesian city hardest hit.
- PunditGuy hosts/links more videos.
- Tsunami Video Hosting Initiative from Mediabloggers.org.
2 Comments
Come on, Paulo, NBC4 is a local news outlet, not CNN. They’re supposed to concentrate on local stories. Besides, right now two of their three main stories are tsunami-related (one about the disaster itself, one about local giving).
Hey, Ordo, thought this might interest you: one Pinoy’s reaction to news coverage of the tsunami: http://www.livejournal.com/users/m0onchild/62980.html
(PS. Sadly, one of the Filipino fatalities was a sophomore at our alma mater. :( )