National Public Radio has some very international coverage of the China earthquake, both on the air and in its Chengdu Diary blog, the result of a tragic serendipity:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/chengdu
As noted in an alert I just received through Facebook, NPR reporters Melissa
Block and Robert Siegel and several producers were already on the scene, preparing for an All
Things Considered project.
"The blog journals their
experiences there, before, during and after the quake, and has links to
some of the radio stories they've filed from around Chengdu as
well. They've managed to capture some of the most poignant,
heartbreaking stories you will ever experience."
Here's one example, Melissa Block on a couple's search for their loved ones. Her microphone, less intrusive than any "stand up" TV reporters and bulky cameras, is enough... especially with a full 10 minutes to tell the story. Her voiceover bears witness, adds evocative description, never falls into the journalistic traps of being too detached or sensational... at least that's the reaction of most listeners who have added comments to the blog's story page. On it Block tells more about the family and the NPR team they permitted to so eloquently share their grief.
If you don't like radio's power to get you emotionally involved in a story, you can still browse the blog and see how well NPR is applying a multimedia approach to its China storytelling -- not all of which is disaster and horror. See this photo feature on ancient seismic instruments decorating a hotel lobby, or this blog item -- with video -- a sidebar on pandas. Radio? Photos? Video? With all this Web convergence, the listener-oriented descriptive writing is still there, accompanying the video clip:
"We found one of the adult female pandas, 9-year-old Qi Zhen, relaxing
in a pool of water in her outdoor enclosure. She was sitting up,
slumped over her paunchy belly, looking like a lazy matron dozing off
in the tub. Then, as we watched, she started lifting her feet out of
the water, rotating them in small splashy circles, in what could pass
for panda water aerobics."
2:42:03 PM 
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