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Desperate for information, she turned to the television networks and the mainstream media, only to find them overly broad, general, too out there. The one thing that spoke to her as she faced the void: the network of expatriate Burmese Web sites stocked with invaluable, up-close details that helped her make sense of the devastation before her sister finally called out with the news that they’d lost a roof but were otherwise OK.
“These sites are hugely important for us,” Mya Moeswe said. “It’s often the only thing we know.”
Part newsstand, town hall, bulletin board and cheerleader, these virtual communities have played a vital role in easing heartaches in the last week, managing to evade the long arm of the cyber police and thwart an isolated, repressive regime to bring news and personal information to the world.
Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, has one of the world’s most censored media, according to Committee to Protect Journalists, a watchdog group, with a tightly controlled official press and Internet filtering that blocks Google and Yahoo e-mail, the BBC and the diaspora Web sites.
In this environment, news gathering for the expatriate Web sites is done by informal networks of anywhere from a handful to several hundred volunteers inside Myanmar sending stories, tidbits, video clips and still shots out through Internet cafes, public phones or with departing travelers.
Some are given equipment and a few hours in reporting basics; others find their own way. While the journalistic standards vary widely, some participants even call police stations and government officials for comments or a response.
In September, when pro-democracy monks in Myanmar rose up against the regime, these ragtag bands often had the best footage worldwide.
In this crisis, their role has been less newsworthy. But with the country battling power and Internet blackouts, an information vacuum and the official 22,000 death toll expected to rise sharply, their role arguably has been invaluable personally to the estimated 3 million to 5 million Burmese overseas.
“The diaspora media has been critical,” said Aung Naing Oo, a political analyst in Thailand. “By using traditional networks of friends, they were able to get firsthand information about the cyclone.”