Since early November, bushfires have been ravishing the countryside of Australia, causing devastation that is hardly imaginable. According to recent reports through the BBC, the fires have caused the death of at least 25 people, destroyed over 1,400 homes, torched more than 15.6 million acres of land and killed an estimated 1 billion animals.
It is believed that the initial fires were caused by either lightning or accidents, but as of a Jan. 7 report from Newsweek, at least 24 people have been charged with arson related to the fires.
Despite the devastation caused by the fires, mainstream news outlets in America were not heavily reporting on the situation until early January. By this time, many had found out about the bushfires through the spread of awareness via social media.
On Jan. 5, Australian artist Anthony Hearsey posted an infographic to his Instagram account that went viral. The image was taken from Hearsey’s page and shared across all platforms, causing exposure to millions.
With the fast spread of the infographic, which used imaging from NASA to create a realistic image of what was happening to the country, false information also spread. The image was tweeted by accounts saying that it was real imagery of the fires from NASA. Instagram and Facebook posts talking about the image and what was happening in Australia were shared thousands of times by people all over the world.
Everyone was suddenly buzzing about what was happening in Australia, despite issues with the spread of incorrect information.
Around this time, American news outlets began accurately reporting on the bushfires which gave people more accurate and clear information they were previously lacking.
Due to the power of social media, awareness and donations to bushfire relief have heightened.
After pressure on social media which framed her as a hypocrite, Kylie Jenner publically donated one million dollars to relief efforts. Australian actor Chris Hemsworth went on Instagram to announce that his family would be donating another million dollars and encouraged everyone following him to donate as well.
Everyday citizens are donating what they can to help the people and animals affected by the devastation. This is all due to the spread of information about the bushfires via social media platforms and people outside of the media sharing information they knew.
Exposure to the issue of the devastation of the bushfires via social media caused the media frenzy around it. There is no doubt that social media is helping us stay more informed outside of the mainstream media’s headlines.
Donations to the Australian Red Cross’ disaster relief and recovery can be made at https://fundraise.redcross.org.au/drr.
Photo: Tate Walden/ The Johnsonian
