Full Circle Associates

The world turns to citizen journalists for eyewitness accounts and more as the crisis continues to unfold.

The earthquake and tsunamis in South Asia and their aftermath represent a tipping point in so-called 'citizen journalism.' What September 11, 2001, was to setting off the growth and enhanced reputation of blogs, the December 2004 tsunamis are to the larger notion of citizen journalism (of which blogs are a part).

If you think about it, this worst natural disaster in a lifetime is an amazing media story. (And that's not to discount the horrible human tragedy of it, only to focus here on the media angle.) It's not only that it will occupy traditional journalists for months and even years during the recovery. What's amazing is how many of the people who experienced and survived the disaster -- spread across several countries and thousands of miles -- were able to share their heart-wrenching stories, photographs, and videos with the rest of the world."