Hollie-Anne Brooks writes about the convergence of journalism and social media with platforms such as Storify:

 The Newcastle floods and a shining example to wannabe journalists.

Despite currently baking under the sun and enjoying the early morning warm walks, the weather wasn’t quite so nice as this not so long ago. If you can put your ice-cream cone down for a moment, pop your sunglasses on your head and cast your mind back to the very end of June, you’re looking at something different entirely.

Rain poured, thunder stormed and lightening lit up my front room like a Christmas tree.

“But what has this got to do with social media?” I hear you cry. Well, readers, I was lucky enough to witness the execution of a brilliant piece of journalism.

I’ve never really been caught up in anything that was live-Twteted before, minus things like conferences and concerts. But I’m not talking geeky happenings here, I’m talking real, hard news. News that has the impact to potentially change your life. News that leaves you in tears of worry and has you checking your phone every three seconds.

My hometown of Newcastle became a victim to the weather on June 29th and my mum was caught up in it. Before I get comments saying the floods weren’t as bad as some others across the country, I agree. It’s when you’re caught up in the moment, though, that it feels like the world is closing in. Finishing work at 4pm, the public transport system was delayed. Over the next hour, the rain would pelt down causing roads to flood, cars to come to a standstill and commuters to become stranded. Being miles away in Nottingham, I was helpless. And this is where the power and magic of Twitter and social media comes in.

Ed Walker is someone I follow on Twitter. He’s very interesting. He’s also Digital Development Editor with Trinity Media Regionals. And he was stuck in Newcastle, too. Having come up from London to visit the team at the Evening Chronicle, the closure of the train station due to flooding meant Ed had no chance of getting back to the capital. What happened over the course of the next few hours was a beautiful, professional and incredibly well executed piece of journalism.

With the aid of his talented team, Ed helped produce a live stream of Tweets and constant updates via the newspaper’s website, Chronicle live. Using social media to aid journalism isn’t anything especially new but the work the team pulled out that night – exclusives, using social media to chat to commuters, reassuring those around them – just had a tinge of something very, very special.

Perhaps because I was part of it and caught up in the drama meant it registered with me more but something tells me it was more than that. Using Storify, the application which allows you to curate the best of social media in order to tell or enhance stories, Heather Hughes – Digital Producer of Trinity Mirror’s regionals – compiled a perfect piece of journalism.

Hash tags were flying around all over the place, photos were being uploaded to Facebook and stranded commuters were using the last of their battery power to Tweet their despair. Whilst it’s a good thing for journalists to be able to see and read different stories, it’s difficult to know what is genuine/real/worth while reporting on. So the use of Storify, the selection of content the team at the Evening Chronicle used and the help from public produced a real community based piece of journalism to be proud of. Heather says:

“The storm evolved really quickly: from heavy rain, to floods. On social media, where most people were gathering to discuss the storm, it was hard to keep up with it all and to track how it had begun. I decided then, as there was so much useful content on Twitter, to create a Storify that curated this information in a timeline format that helped our readers to identify what had happened and how it might affect them.”

Jessica Best adds:

“We’ve used Storify in a couple of different ways. Firstly, it’s a great tool for curating and displaying a big reaction to a controversial local story. Secondly, we’ve used it to give a flavour of how a really big event has unfolded across the city.”

When the electricity went down for over 15,000 homes, the team at the Evening Chronicle continued to report and smart phones became a savior for those trying to work out what was going on with loved ones. The use of tools such as Storify and Storyful aren’t used nearly enough as I feel they should be in local journalism. The Evening Chronicle’s use of Storify should set an example to other local news sources who are lagging behind. Well done, team!

PS/ My mum? It took her 7 hours to get home. Apart from a slightly flooded house, she was fine after a very large glass of wine and a cuddle off the guinea pig!

By Hollie-Anne Brooks

Hollie-Anne worked as an intern with Shake. You can follow Hollie-Anne on Twitter here or read her blog here.