Knight Study: Broadcasting Still Top Information Source In Emergencies

Knight Foundation released a report that finds that new media helped connect in the aid and recovery effort following last year's devastating earthquake in Haiti, but radio remained the most effective communications tool, though it proved even more effective in partnership with some of those new technologies.

The report's three key takeaways are that humanitarian organizations were open to, but nervous about the implications, of using new technologies like crowd sourcing, that some turned out to be beneficial, texting in particular, but that the first priority in Haiti, which was to restore radio service, was the right one since radio was the "most effective tool for serving the public," as it had been with the tsunami and other crises. "Access to radio can be shared easily and relatively cheaply among many people, and serves both literate and illiterate populations," the study found.