It is hard not to be amazed at how quickly breaking news spreads through social culture. The Japan Tsunami was a fine example of how quickly news spreads from tv to social and back to tv again. Even more so we saw the connected stories of people in Japan reaching out through social channels immediately after the event, the launch of Google’s “Find People in Japan” service, and countless mobile phone videos of the event itself, catching bodies floating past in the water.
My feeling, is that with each newer and more diverse news story that we see; The African Revolts of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, The Tsunami of Japan, the continuing crisis in Haiti (over a year on), that we are growing more or less empathetic about the plight of the people involved. Is there so much of this news that breaks so quickly, that we watch on in fascination rather than sympathy?
Certainly, there have been a few examples of this during the Japan Tsunami. One of which that springs to mind is the first person video seen below. Although clearly in a diabolical situation, we watch on in amazement knowing full well that this could be his last moments and then we forward on the content for entertainment value. Sharing someone else’s peril for our viewing pleasure.
Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps actually what happens is that the sharing of this video has driven a larger volume of people to donate, all inherently connected to the initial seeding of the video. Social culture may have even triggered a moment of reflection around this content, but I am sure that most people would have seen this as entertainment (sick comments on the YouTube video itself ignored obviously). I’d certainly be interested to see how contributions for the Tsunami of 2004 are different to the contributions for Japan in 2011. Has more consumer generated footage, meant less donations? Or more?
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剑伟 林
