Three Ways The Media Set A High Standard With Buffalo Snow

More than a dozen people are dead, residents remain trapped in homes and roads are impassable. As Buffalo digs out from a record snowfall the focus moves to building collapses and flooding. Mother nature’s big dump stirs feelings of isolation and fear when you know you’ll be crushed by a mountain of snow when you open your door, but as seen below, some people overcame that by downing a few cold ones before clawing out.

Alcohol may have helped, but TV, social media and digital devices played an even bigger role to reduce fear and isolation. Six feet of snow is a record-setting height and during this event, the media set its bar just as high; they all complemented each other and connected the Buffalo community and the world in real time. This is just a glimpse into the future of story-telling, where consumers demand multiple sources of news from multiple forms of technology, even drones.

10 insane tweets from the record #buffalosnow storm: http://t.co/pvqqgFEXAi (via @weathernetwork) pic.twitter.com/Lc8geQZq73

— Storify (@Storify) November 19, 2014

1. Local TV News Does It Best– Local stations covered the storm wall to wall and proved that TV is still the most powerful medium for big events. Why is this? TV stations dedicate hundreds of staffers and spread themselves across the scene when major stories hit. This provides a valuable public service and the metrics back this up.  The Buffalo News reports that Channel 2, WGRZ was the ratings winner for the storm and viewership with stations beat a Buffalo Bills game, no small feat. Today’s TV news media is much more than reporters live in the field; journalists want want to share as many interesting human elements and public safety announcements possible. That’s why they dedicate personnel and resources to facilitate and coordinate the social media conversation.

2. Social Media Lit It Up -Posts ranged from warnings of a building collapse via the Erie County Sheriff’s Facebook page to multiple images of regular people trying to cope.

Lohud was one of many sites that chronicled stories of regular people digging out. Social Media posts appeared on TV stations, newspapers, other blogs and often went viral without media help.

3. Digital Technology Flies High –It’s strongly advised that news choppers avoid severe weather and news crews on the ground encountered limited mobility, so James Grimaldi programmed his drone to record video the storm with this dramatic story.

The blanket coverage from television news, aka “smotherage” combined with social media and digital story-telling made this communications effort one for the ages, just like this epic storm. I won’t predict the weather, but it’s safe to forecast that this is the future of news delivery and consumption. Local TV will always play a major role in our backyard and from now on, it will have an even bigger supporting cast of credible platforms with stories and images that bring the news even closer to us, in real time, which benefits everyone.

The opinions expressed in this blog are my own. My Twitter handle is Ronald Petrovich

picture of Ron

Where Do We Go When We Die On Social Media?

Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday Dear (your name). Happy Birthday to You. Keep singing in your head and now pretend that you are dead for a moment. How old are you? How old are you? Even though you have died, don’t worry, social media will keep celebrating with your friends and family.

If you are on Facebook, it’s likely that you have been notified about an upcoming birthday from a dead friend. Unfortunately, I’ve received too many of these lately.

It was only about five or six years ago that a newborn’s first footprints were recorded in ink at the hospital; today our first footprints are recorded in digital. As soon as babies take their first breaths and from cradle to grave an entire life of milestones will be shared on social media, which is a ton of fun, but what happens when it ends?

My wife Stacey and I hope we don’t leave too many unanswered questions for our family when we die and recently formalized an Advanced Directive, a legal document that expresses our end of life health care wishes. After we completed the paperwork I thought about a few more loose ends: event notices from Facebook, my legacy on social media sites and the ability for others to say nasty things about me after I’m gone like, “He thought he was so funny. We only laughed at Ron because we felt sorry for him.”

My concerns may be exaggerated but I believe there is a better balance between blowing out virtual candles for dead people and all the good that social media does to promote health and unite us in illness and death.

During hospital stays, the password-protected sites CarePages and CaringBridge  serve as therapeutic conduits to update family and friends on posts that range from a happy birth announcement to a terminal illness. On another social media platform NPR reporter Scott Simon shared his love for his dying mother on Twitter.

Mother groans w/ pleasure–over flossing. “When they mention great little things in life, they usually forget flossing.” — Scott Simon (@nprscottsimon) July 28, 2013

Paul Bisceglio featured the well-known Simon in a poignant article in the Atlantic, How Social Media is Changing The Way We Approach Death. He spoke with people who believe that social media may distract the caregiver from the patient, but mostly how social media can lend a compassionate hand. Even though his mom passed, Simon’s tweets still resonate.

@nprscottsimon My father died a year ago yesterday. Your tweets, compassion, humor and humanity helped the passing immensely. Thank you.

— Robert Falls (@RobertFalls) July 29, 2014

As sentimental as the Scott Simon account was,  Laurie Penny, contributing editor @Newstatesman wrote Selfies at Funerals and memorial hashtags: mourning in the digital age , “In recent weeks and months, social media has been unremittingly macabre….. Most recently, 25-year-old journalist and socialite Peaches Geldof was found dead in her home and…. everyone from Boy George to the Irish prime minister tweeted their condolences…..”

Stephanie Buck from Mashable published, How 1 Billion People Are Coping With Death and Facebook, and concludes that as of 2012, 30 million people who maintained Facebook accounts have died. She freaked me out a little and inspired me to dig a little more on my own. Here is where you begin on Facebook and this is what you’ll see if you want to remove a deceased friend or family member.

On Twitter, the company’s policy asks that a representative acting on behalf of the estate or a verified family member manage this process. The most helpful site I found is dedicated to grieving and dealing with death, Modern Loss. It posted this comprehensive listing with instructions required by Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and other social media platforms.

These decisions are very personal and there is no right answer and your position may evolve like mine has. I’ve moved toward acceptance because social media’s influence will continue to flourish with most of it for the greater good. When I saw the respectful comments on my deceased friend’s Facebook wall recently, I mustered the courage to write a condolence and took it a step further to pay my respects digitally on the funeral home’s community web site.

When you die you’ll definitely leave some sort of digital footprint, but how big do you want it to be and how much hassle do you want your family to endure? I’m still leaning toward sharing my passwords with my survivors so they don’t have to file a bunch of requests and hopefully remember more of the real me rather than the digital me.

The opinions expressed in this blog are my own. My Twitter handle is Ronald Petrovich