The Snowpacolypse hit Atlanta at about 8:45 p.m. EST on Sunday, January 9 and continues to daunt the state of Georgia, which has been declared as in a State of Emergency. Lack of winter-weather equipment forced many metro-Atlantans to remain indoors and avoid the icy driving conditions. But what they did not avoid was social media.
Since Sunday night, most all metro-Atlanta schools have been closed. Some interstates have a reported 2 inches of snow that lay atop the cement, causing closing of entire sections of all interstates in and around the city. Where did Atlanta go to talk about the epic Snopacolypse of 2011?
Facebook and Twitter.
Local news network affiliate stations and newspapers took to the web to engage in the already popular conversation. Not only did they offer breaking news, school closings and road conditions to social media users, they also integrated a place to share personal content related to the storm. Some stations included their Facebook URL in association with the number of their help desk during newscasts in an effort to answer questions in a quick and effective manner.
People trapped inside their houses tweeted the news stations to ask questions about road conditions. Not only did we see the handles of the news affiliates respond, but we also saw anchors and correspondents participate in the conversation
We also saw the city of Atlanta unafraid to share photos and video. Amateur photography flooded the Facebook pages of the local ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS affiliates with everything from pictures of their makeshift snowmen to beautiful snowy sunsets. Atlanta advertiser, photographer and former hockey player made national headlines with a video of him ice skating down Peachtree Street, one of the busiest roads in Atlanta.
The City of Atlanta twitter handle (@City_of_Atlanta) reached over 5,000 followers with street closures and immediate information. Most impressive was @WSB_TV with at least 300 tweets so far since the first spotting of snow in the town of Columbus, GA. This was supplemented by their special storm handle, @wsbtvstorm that was dedicated to reporting information pertaining to the storm.
The report in Atlanta stays the same – roads are still impassable, the city still doesn’t have the resources to treat them, schools remain closed, but the Atlantans on Twitter and Facebook are nothing but quiet. We now see #atlsnow become less popular while the talk of “cabin fever” is a hot topic. We’re restless to get back to normality, but with below freezing temperatures forecasted until Saturday, the only promise is that the conversation about the storm will continue until citizens of the south brave the cold, break the ice, and see the falling icicles from the sides of their houses.
The questions we ask is – how would the social media conversation have turned out without the mediation of mass news channels? We know that the volume of conversation was high, but how has it been driven by the participation of these news outlets? Did they actually direct the mass chaos that exploded online and on our city’s surface streets?
From the safety of the OPR Atlanta office, the Atlanta DI team is all checking in safely. Over and out.
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