Japan crisis showcases social media’s muscle — from USAToday.com by Steve Sternberg; my thanks to Mr. Steven Chevalia for this resource

Japan’s disaster has spotlighted the critical role that social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube and Skype increasingly are playing in responses to crises around the world. They may have been designed largely for online socializing and fun, but such sites and others have empowered people caught up in crises and others wanting to help to share vivid, unfiltered images, audio and text reports before governments or more traditional media can do so.

“Often, it’s not the experts who know something, it’s someone in the crowd,” says Sree Sreenivasan, a social media specialist at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.