Space is a funny thing because the world shrinks with technology and with the relative ease of air travel. But, how does where we are located affect how we (as journalists) report on important issues? Recently I've written a bit on journalists covering issues that occur abroad. My article "Inside Disaster explored Haiti from within," was originally published in the Ryerson Free Press here. You can also read on for the full article here:
The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010 became the subject of much sensational media coverage in the months that followed and then it slowly faded into the background as different news items filled out the daily news cycles of major news networks. However, the earthquake's destruction lived on in Haiti and so it became the subject of an in-depth three-part documentary series directed by Nadine Pequeneza, as well as the subject for an innovative website, also aptly called Inside Disaster. As soon as the PTV Productions team who were responsible for creating Inside Disaster, heard the sad news of the quake they immediately went to Haiti to document the momentous events. Katie McKenna, the in-house internet producer at PTV Productions in Toronto hired Nicolas Jolliet, an experienced internationally travelled photographer and filmmaker, to be their website producer from the field. He landed in Haiti with the film crew, carrying only his backpack, camera, laptop, GPS and satellite modem in order to produce photos, videos and blog entries four times each week. He worked separately from the film crew, uncovering the stories of survivors and humanitarian aid workers. Jolliet's mandate was clear, recalled McKenna, “find out how people are surviving without humanitarian aid.” Flash backward several months to September of 2009. McKenna was a recent graduate from the masters program in humanitarian studies at the London School of Economics. She had just become the internet director at PTV Productions and was securing funding to build an interactive website that would run parallel to a documentary film which would follow the international Red Cross to their next destination, wherever disaster would strike. On October 1, 2010 PTV submitted their Bell Fund application, and they ended up receiving several grants to produce an interactive website. They proposed using existing web 2.0 tools and some savvy media techniques to deliver in depth content and a historical context to current events. They also offered educational resources for those interested in learning about humanitarian efforts, volunteer work and fundraising. They were going to produce a unique website that was in an innovative form for distributing important information. Their website also served as a platform to connect desperate audiences of people from Haiti and people in Canada, as well as the Haitian community living abroad. By February of 2010 they had already begun developing their experiential interactive component to their website; a flash website with video clips from the film embedded. Flash forward to September 2010. McKenna discussed the lessons she learned while working on the Inside Disaster website to a room full of interactive web producers and film producers who want to create similar projects. The event was hosted by the Documentary Organization of Canada's Toronto chapter, and by the DOC Shift project. McKenna explained how she and her team were able to pull off fabulous results in both the real world and online, by providing critical information and unique perspectives. The results of their project were remarkable. Inside Disaster produced over 60 blog posts and garnered 7000 flickr photo views.They produced 30 videos which were seen over 43,000 times on youtube and and they had coverage on all of the major Canadian news networks. They received over 400 comments on their content and approximately 31,000 visitors went to the website in a number of months. Even more tangible than the online results were the results that came about because of their reporting efforts. Haitians in Canada were able to learn more about what was going on with their loved ones and could connect with a broader community of Haitians around the world to make sense of it all. McKenna retold the story of how a Haitian they hired to write a blog for them, Emmanuel Midi was able to launch his own successful career as a fixer for other news organizations after he worked with Jolliet, putting him in contact with people so Jolliet could document their stories. With PTV's support and testimonial, Midi now widely offers a fixer service (haitifixers.com). One of his more light hearted blog entries that he wrote for Inside Disaster, which was about two innovative brothers doing good in Haiti also got redistributed on globalvoicesonline.org and received hundreds of reader comments. McKenna said, “This is the power of the web – You create someone who exists and now they exist online too.” How can others interested in creating an interactive project like McKenna, succeed? McKenna advises, “Write a confident funding application... Get a blog and mailing list up fast... Don’t be afraid to be simple... Hire someone for outreach... Crowdsource and talk to your audience.” Finally, she said, “Prototyping works!” She also reminded film producers that the website has to be beneficial to the filmmaker, and that they need to be involved in the website development process. Hiring a writer who knows the web medium is a good idea too, she said. Finally, McKenna was enthusiastic about working with young employees who have a lot to gain, and a lot to give, on the job. For more on the new Inside Disaster website now in BETA, visit: insidedisaster.com.

