On January 12th, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Social Media platforms such as Twitter proved to be a real-time source of current information. With over 200 000 lives lost, the Haiti Earthquake received worldwide attention. Within minutes of the earthquake, Twitter reported the event in real-time, and within three days had more than 2.3 million tweets with #Haiti. The public knowledge of the devastating condition the nation of Haiti was suffering from, was further reinforced during the one-hour segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The initial show aired on January 20th, 2010, and potentially reached 43-55 million, viewers. On January 22nd, 2010, George Clooney and Wyclef Jean led a two-hour charity telethon, which featured speeches, performances, and a live telecast of the conditions in Haiti. Over 100 celebrities including Rihanna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay-z, Taylor Swift, Brad Pitt, and many
more garnered 83 million viewers and raised $63 million in relief funds. On January 27th, 2010, celebrities such as Beyoncé, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and Jay-z amongst many others released an album Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief in support of the catastrophe. Altogether, the events communicated the devastation of Haiti over 150 million times. A key hallmark to gaining sympathy for the nation of Haiti was its portrayal as a corrupt, conflict-driven, poor nation, which was evident in tweets and all the events. Thus, more media and social media coverage resulted in greater knowledge about the situation Haitians were suffering from. More knowledge and the advertised poverty of Haiti resulted in more than $15 billion in relief efforts. Unfortunately, this money was not put to good use, as a retrospective study following the event showed immense poverty and Cholera outbreaks.