COLLINS – Local media still the best way to communicate in emergencies

Posted on June 20, 2017 in Collins, Local Voices, Page One // 0 Comments

Fort Mac residents struggled to get information during wildfire.

A NEW STUDY released yesterday shows the struggle many Fort McMurray residents had trying to find answers in last year’s devastating wildfire.

An analysis of 70,000 tweets showed many could find no source of information as the wildfire roared through their community, tearing apart lives and leaving many homeless.

Many are calling for some sort of app to feed information to residents in times of emergency, but those that have been devised so far have been woefully inadequate.

They just aren’t able to keep up. Social media became the “go to” source of information, but much of it was inaccurate, and many residents wound up not knowing what to believe.

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Doug Collins is the Director of News, Information and Television Operations at CFJC-TV. Doug has been on the air in Kamloops since 1970. He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada in 2008.