Why video increased the Japanese Earthquake’s impact

2011 has been an astonishing year for news and we’re not even half way through. The so-called ‘Arab Spring’, the ongoing economic troubles, The Christchurch earthquake and floods in Australia have all been massive stories. As if that wasn’t enough a few months ago what could unravel to be biggest news story of the year hit our screens – the monstrous Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami in Northern Japan.

Who would have thought that the battle to topple Gaddafi, not to mention the effective invasion of Bahrain by Saudi troops would be completely wiped off the news agenda? The earthquake was obviously a very substantial news story, but its complete dominance of the airwaves was in itself remarkable. This was in no small part down to web video.

The Japanese earthquake was the world’s first mass-videoed-mass-uploaded-major-natural-disaster. It’s a stereotype of the Japanese that they all take pictures or videos all the time, but it’s fair to say that the country that gave us Nikon, Toshiba & Sony is likely to have a few handycams, smart phones and stills cameras on hand at a moment’s notice. As the Japanese are pretty blasé about earthquakes – small tremors are a part of everyday life – when the quake first struck people’s instinct was not to dive under a desk or huddle under a doorframe but press record on their 720p enabled HD smart phone and capture the whole event. It was only as the quake continued to rumble and the ground shook so violently that many people realised how severe the quake really was – yet for many that was all the more reason to keep taping the unfolding scene, and as soon as it was over upload the whole thing to YouTube.

So half an hour after the earthquake hundreds of clips showing absolutely incredible footage sprung up on the internet for the world to see. A small selection are included here.

Buildings shaking violently:

Inside a supermarket:

Inside a shopping centre:

The rolling news channels pounced on the footage. As more and more clips surfaced the networks wiped their schedules to accommodate them. The world was hooked on the story due to footage from ordinary people.

I spoke to an aid worker who was flying out to Japan a few days after the earthquake. Tellingly she said she was now seriously considering spending a chunk of her charity’s money in their other disaster zones on handing out video cameras alongside aid to survivors so they too could capture the horrors of their situation and get some of that much needed attention from the international community.

Although it was for all the wrong reasons the Japanese Earthquake is one of the best demonstrations yet of how if people can see something (rather than just hear or read about it) they will give it their absolute full attention.