A few months ago Christchurch suffered one of its biggest earthquakes to date, and we saw the raw power of citizen journalism. When the quake struck, people were tweeting away from their phones, giving a blow-by-blow account of the earthquake as it happened. Yesterday another tragedy struck the South Island, this time a blast at the Pike River mine, which killed 29 men. Journalists immediately took to Twitter to give updates on the rescue efforts, including breaking the devastating news of the miners' deaths.Many NZ Twitter users kept up to date with the Pike River tragedy by tuning into the
#pikeriver hashtag on Twitter.These two tragic events have really shown the uber-connected nature of New Zealanders, and illustrates the way that Twitter gives a voice to an individual and how that voice is received and acknowledged by the world.After the two tragedies we saw an influx of mentions from the Twitter community around the world, sending prayers, well-wishes, and urging New Zealanders to be strong in this hour of togetherness. It's quite staggering really, the way Twitter opens up New Zealand to the rest of the world and even though countries like Australia, Great Britain, and the United States are thousands of miles away, Twitter brings all countries together. It truly allows the world to come together as a community to reach out to those in need or send their well-wishes to those affected by these tragedies.A number of Twitterers, including two of New Zealand's well-known online journalists
David Ferrier from TV3 and
Greer McDonald from stuff.co.nz logged off Twitter last night as a sign of respect. Former Governor of Alaska
Sarah Palin also tweeted her prayers to the New Zealand people and New Zealand artist
Brooke Fraser also tweeted how she felt about the Pike River blast. And at around 11am today the Twitter community came together as one for 10 minutes of silence to show their respect for the lost miners.
In these sad times, Twitter has become a valuable communication tool and shows New Zealanders that we are not alone in our grief. We here at Social Media NZ want to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt sorrow and love to all the families and friends who were affected by the Pike River blast.
