Houston Chronicle Excels in Hurricane Ike Coverage

September 13, 2008 by Jonathan 

As someone who not only is interested in and , but who also works in social for a living I constantly see stations and newspapers who either don’t take advantage of advances in or completely ignore the true value in the power of people.

This morning as I think about my family who lives in City, Texas (a suburb) I scoured the web to find the best and most complete coverage and information about Hurricane .

First I turned to MyFoxHouston.com, the Fox TV affiliate for . They have a a special live-chat, live-broadcast, maps, , and audio going full force on a micro-site called MyFoxHoustonLive.com. This I feel was overkill, it’s too much to process at once. Yes they are using to extend their coverage beyond “wall to wall” - which I commend them for - but the page was cluttered, it was hard to on anything, and in general there was just too much going on.

I then tried the other TV networks, both national and local. Of course the national networks have information but still lack the “instant” updates that I wanted.

My next link was the Houston Chronicle (to be honest, they were actually the first place I looked yesterday afternoon for updated maps and evacuation information). Chron.com may not have the fancy cameras and satellites that the TV stations have, but what they do feature are blogs. Live blogs. This is my favorite format for live and constantly updated information. Blogs let the user read as much or as little as they want, and in chronological order.

Not only are there two blogs updating every few minutes (one focuses on the science, the other on news and information) but the Chronicle was also smart enough to start a feed of constantly updated informaiton, and also began pulling public “tweets” into their site.

To me, this shows absolute respect for their users both locally and nationally. and THAT’s the key to success in the - giving the customer what they want, when they want it, while maintaining your ethical standards.

–

This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.

Possibly Related posts:

  1. Hurricane Ike Media Review: KHOU.com
  2. Hurricane Ike Media Review: Judging Criteria
  3. The Week Ahead: Reviews of the Media Response to Hurricane Ike
  4. A New Media Mindset
  5. Flue Vaccine makes front page amidst Hurricane

Filed under: Blog, New Media
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

One Response to “Houston Chronicle Excels in Hurricane Ike Coverage”

  1. Anthony on September 15th, 2008 2:15 pm

    Cynthia G Miller Dickinson; Tx Hurricane Ike

    ——————————————————————————–
    looking for Cynthia G Miller
    Dickinson Tx 77539

    haven’t heard a peep since last thursday

    Mobile Home resident
    300-320 17th street
    Dickinson; Texas

    Please call to let us know your alright or not
    954-560-9713 , Tony (Florida)

    Darlene is asking for you too.
    Let me know what I can do to help you.
    Please contact ** collect call okay **

Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!