---
title: Putting the Social into Conscience
description: Waking up every morning in China and watching the daily flood of images from the Sichuan earthquake has been both devastating and moving. But there
image: https://www.mike-walsh.com/hs-fs/file-15802258-jpg/images/2156114543_349b5aa9bf_b.jpg
---

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## [Putting the Social into Conscience](https://www.mike-walsh.com/blog/bid/50425/Putting-the-Social-into-Conscience)

Posted by [Mike Walsh](https://www.mike-walsh.com/blog/author/mike-walsh)

 5/15/08 10:47 AM

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![China](https://www.mike-walsh.com/hs-fs/file-15802258-jpg/images/2156114543_349b5aa9bf_b.jpg?width=320&height=210&name=2156114543_349b5aa9bf_b.jpg)Waking up every morning in China and watching the daily flood of images from the Sichuan earthquake has been both devastating and moving. But there has also been an interesting social media dimension to the disaster worth noting.

The same nationalist fervor that gripped Chinese bloggers during the Tibet and Torch relay protests, has been replaced by a collective sense of action in recent days - played out across SMS, QQ, Twitter and local Chinese BBS networks.

Twitter apparently broke the news about the earthquake before the official earthquake tracking agency. QQ has aggregated video shot by its users from many of the affected areas, while amazing footage from mobile phones quickly found its way onto Tudou. And on the fund raising side, China Mobile has set up an effective system which lets subscribers donate by sending an SMS, which then gets charged to your phone bill. It's the future of charitable action. For more details keep an eye on [Global Voices](http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/05/12/china-78-scale-earthquake-felt-across-most-of-china/) for their ongoing coverage.

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