Christchurch and Twitter

It takes just seconds to post a status update to Twitter which means Twitter can break news even before the news stations. Within minutes of the earthquake in Christchurch people were tweeting about the disaster. At a time when many people in Chch didn't have radio or television coverage Twitter provided status updates for them via their mobile phones.

You can find out whats happening in Christchurch by searching for the hashtags

• #christchurch 
• #eqnz

or looking at the twitter handles:

• twitter.com/#!/nzpolice_chch
• twitter.com/#!/NZRedCross
• twitter.com/#!/NZcivildefence

The Japanese earthquake is #eqjp

... and if you don't know what these #tags mean you can go on over to the Twitter glossary and look them up.