Haiti earthquake shows Internet's positive power

Updated Friday, Jan. 15, 2010, and Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010

Eastern Iowa families in Kalona and Pella have learned the Haitian children they are adopting, and who still are in Haiti, are OK. Here's the link to the latest.

I'm writing in my Sunday, Jan. 17, Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette column about how the magnitude-7 earthquake in Haiti truly has been an Internet story.

Some examples: interactive maps from the likes of the New York Times, USA Today and the rest, but also non-news agencies like the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which has a map showing where its missionaries were and if they are OK. The map can be found at the synod's main Web site www.lcms.org

The church's example shows how the Internet is spreading the latest valuable information about the deadly quake from all sorts of sources, beyond the usual suspects of reporters and photographers. People from all walks of life are posting photos and videos at multiple places. Here are links to pages that come up when typing "Haiti" as a search phrase: Google, Yahoo and You Tube.  The sites must be bursting today.

Joe Strupp, an Editor & Publisher reporter until that publication folded in December, reported Thursday, Jan. 14, on his blog StruppBlog.com that he was finding more than 11,000 stories online about the earthquake. The numbers have increased since then. (Jan. 15 UPDATE: After I wrote the first version of this post on Jan. 14 word came that Editor & Publisher would resume business after being purchased by Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc. of Irvine, Calif.)

That's a lot of information on the Web, which is where newspapers came in handy. I'll be making that point, to, in my Sunday column.

Across the country newspapers have been able to give readers in one printed place, where they did not have to click link after link:

• Briefings on the some of the most important things to report out of Haiti.
• Dramatic photos to study and save.
• Maps and graphics with information about the country, including where it is and its standard of living, and why a natural disaster there harms more people than a natural disaster in a more developed country.
• A handy list on how you can help from Iowa with disaster relief. (Note: I'll have a list at the end of this blog)

Local papers, like The Gazette, presented information about local people directly affected by the earthquake: A Luther College (Decorah, IA) graduate attending the Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque to become a Lutheran minister was killed, for example. A Cedar Rapids native is in Haiti working at a mission for kids and college students from Haiti or with family there are concerned. Plus, we've listed local places to donate.

Yeah, it was on the Internet and television, too, earlier and in useful places. But we were able to put together a package that helped make sense of it all, it did not go away when the next hot item for the Internet audience came along, and we printed it out for you to boot.

I talked on KXIC radio, of Iowa City, with its morning anchor Steven Grace on Friday, Jan. 15, about all the local angles connecting just Eastern Iowa to what is going on in Haiti. Plenty exist.

One note about the paper: I got a voice message Wednesday morning, Jan. 13, from a caller who later submitted a letter to the editor, wondering where our heads were at when we didn't initially put the earthquake on page 1 Wednesday morning. Our front page led with an Associated Press story about the difficulty measuring how many jobs federal stimulus money is creating and local stories on the Iowa governor's Condition of the State address, a murder in Cedar Rapids, plans for a major downtown Cedar Rapids site hit by the 2008 flood and -- the offender, in the reader's eyes -- a short story about a cat that survived in subzero weather an 80-mile ride beneath a pickup truck, to where it had crawled.

It was the kind of light story readers ask for when they complain about bad news being all over the paper.

Haiti could have gone to 1A but we chose to lead our Nation/World page inside the paper with the story so we could have room for more to report and a photo. It was a judgment call and the criticism is fair game. Worth noting: that story about the cat was the top read story at GazetteOnline.com the day it ran in the newspaper and a smile that sometimes is needed when news is grim.

Our page 1A centerpiece packages in The Gazette on Jan. 14 and Jan. 15 were about Haiti.

New on Sunday, Jan. 17. Bush, Clinton responding to criticism of Obama's response to Haitian disaster.

Places to give aid for Haiti relief

Independent charity evaluators of responsible philanthropic responses:

Charity Navigator

Charity Watch ($3 fee charged to cover postage and handling for this Charity Raiting Guide from the American Institute of Philanthropy.)

• Red Cross
• International Rescue Committee
• Catholic Relief Services
• Mennonite Central Committee
• United Methodist Committee on Relief
• Islamic Relief USA
• American Jewish World Service
• Wyclef Jean's Haitian Yele charity, text 501501. Donation will be added to your next phone bill. Some controversy exists over this one. See link.
• Kids Against Hunger Cedar Rapids
• Habitat for Humanity
• Salvation Army
• AmericaCares
• Hands on Disaster Response
• Church World Service
• InterAction list of agencies responding to Haiti
• UNICEF

Others? Add them to this post.