Using digital tools and skills for the big story

You never know when you will be covering a disaster, but Steve Buttry has lots of advice on how to prepare for one and what to do when it hits based on his experience in leading his paper through coverage of the Midwest floods this summer.

Buttry, editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette and American Press Institute trainer, shared some of his experiences from covering a devastating flood and the following tips during a special presentation at SABEW's fall conference.

For those of you in the midst of covering Hurricane Ike, we'll skip the how to prepare and go right to a shortened version of what to do when disaster strikes.

1. Update early and often. Your community craves information during the disaster. Post updates, photos and videos as often as you can edit them. Send out frequent text or e-mail updates.

2. Verify information. Your standards of completeness may change during a crisis but your standards for accuracy do not change. If you can't verify immediately, tell your readers where you got the information and that you are working on verification.

3. Seek eyewitness reports, including photos and videos. Disasters are a perfect opportunity for crowdsourcing. Ask your online audience to let you know what is going on.

4. Use databases to connect people. Use interactive databases to track relocated businesses, connect displaced people and connect volunteers with people needing help.

5. Use multimedia. Disasters are visual stories. Use all your visual tools to tell this story.

6. Use webcams. Select a position for a webcam so your audience can watch the water rise, then recede or watch the cleanup in real time.

7. Use live webcasts. Show what is happening right now.

8. Use interactive maps. Track what is happening with a single building, community or region.

9. Connect with social networks. You aren't the only place people are telling the story. Use the social media, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, to become the place where your community can link to the best material about the disaster anywhere online.

10. Blow up your home page. Present a home page that grabs the visitor, using your strongest fresh visual images and direct readers to your most urgent and most interesting content.

11. Tell the little stories. Some of your most moving stories will be the stories about an act of kindness or a small business owner reopening or deciding that she cannot reopen.

12. Respect victims. Many people are not used to dealing with the media. Be sure to identify yourselves, respect private property and approach people respectfully.

13. Respect emergency workers. Display press credentials and respect the authority of police, National Guard and other disaster authorities. Good relationships with authorities will get you access to rescue boats and other places where you can get great stories.

Buttry's participation at the fall conference was underwritten by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. He can be reached at steve.buttry@gazcomm.com.

Posted Sept. 14, 2008