Living in Los Angeles as I do, I’ve been following the fires with interest. During the day, this has primarily been through the local media. Some observations:
- The Los Angeles Times Breaking News Blog has been reasonably good for the general, but poor on the specifics. It does, however, have a good set of links. Their main writing has been so-so, usually lagging significantly. I also don’t like their interactive map as well.
- The Daily News (SF Valley) has been weak. They have a good interactive map, but the main stories aren’t that informative.
- The San Diego Union Tribune has done a great job. They have an excellent interactive map, that even goes so far as to show where burned houses are. They also have a list of burned homes and businesses, as well as lots of other closings.
- The Santa Clarita Signal is primarily stories, although they do have a continuous update page that is pretty good. No maps.
- The Ventura County Star does a good job for Ventura Cty. They do provide good closure information. No map.
- The Press-Enterprise has a special section with lots of information, with good links to maps.
- The Orange County Register has a lot of good information, including maps.
In terms of other media, as usual, KNX 1070 and KFWB 980 have been the radio stations of choice. TV is interesting. Variety has a good article noting how stations moved things around. KNXT (oops) KCBS-2 and KCAL-9 switched off coverage, as did FOX-11 and MY-13. When one went to primetime, the other did news. Others shuffled off programming (either news or entertainment, as appropriate) to secondary digital channels. I think this is a new trend, and may end up being a good thing after the digital TV switch. It certainly shows the benefits of media consolidation in markets, something I would have never thought of.
