December 26, 2006, 1.07pm • 1 comment » • 1,058 Views

Will repeat earthquake shake distributed journalism?

As remembrance services take place for the devastating 2004 tsunami in south east Asia, the UK’s Sky News TV channel this Boxing Day cites the AP, then other sources as claiming a 6.7 earthquake at sea, off the coast of Taiwan.

Japan’s meteorological agency chips in to confirm a 7.2 quake and warns of a “potentially destructive” 1-metre tsunami heading for the Philippines.

I’ve found what I think may be amongst the first grassroots/eyewitness accounts of the incident.

Ex-pat Dan in Taipei:

But I was just sitting here in my 12th floor room in the hotel in Taipei when the bed started swaying, the closet door was opening & closing and the drapes were dancing. It lasted about a minute.

MSN user:

I felt the earthquake!
I thought it was just downstairs partying … then I heard it on the news.
So this is the first time I actually felt it. Cool.

Sky added an eyewitness account to the same effect some 15 minutes later.

5 mins: Internet writers in the last 48 hours have also experienced several other earthquakes around the world….

• JTuck, Washington state, US
• Dumfries, Scotland

18 mins: BBC News 24 was still in a scheduled year-in-review programme when AP filed on this. John Sopel’s at the anchor desk now but isn’t mentioning the quake at all in the headlines; they’re not getting worked up yet. Sky’s anchor team has just been interrupted by a scheduled programme on gangland Britain.

22 mins: A new mini wave of bloggers in Taiwan gets to the computer to say “I was there”…

Keith:-

???? 7.2?

Laurie Beth, on her first day at work at a school:-

RUMBLE

for fucking ever. it was strong. the floor and walls and everything shook for what seemed like FOREVER.

then it was quiet. no problem. ok. and we start talking again and then…

RUMBLE much bigger feeling the second time, and longer.

32 mins: Somewhat surprised that news organisations haven’t yet tapped into the eyewitnesses. There’s little indication of damage or injury yet but, if it grows like the 2004 incident, the fact it’s the exact same day would surely give the story an extra something.