Cover Me

By: Adrian Aitken

On the opposite end of the world the best summer athletes gathered in Beijing to be proclaimed the best in his or her event in front of billions of viewers. Unfortunately many events occur simultaneously and coverage on television can become difficult. This year NBC provided a web page in which to enjoy full coverage of each event live. Similarly other media sources are reporting on Gustav with as much eagerness and anticipation.

Al Tompkins, a blogger at Poynter Online, created his own website dedicated to covering Gustav's and the Gulf Coast's progression over the next month. The site gathers information from many other networks, blog sites, and twitter (a microblog site)and compiles the reports together. Much like nbcolympics.com his web page provides minute coverage of the storm and the movements in cities along the coast. Al's main source of information comes from twitter. Twitter which acts as a blog site for smaller posts gives access to phones, so during those hard times when the Internet is down those with working cells can comment on current events.

Tompkins is not the only place to get good coverage of the coming destruction. Colleges and Universities in or around the path of the storm will also be covering how the next couple of weeks unfold. For those students in Journalism or have a hobby of blogging get the chance to experience first hand reporting on a large story. I'm sure there will be no shortage of sources covering the Category 3 hurricane and its aftermath.