The following is an excerpt from CBS11tv.com .  Read the full story here .

An assistant professor of journalism at SMU says these emerging technologies are helping when traditional lines of communication are incapacitated or taken over by emergency responders. "An instant conversation springs up online and completely bypasses the traditional institutions, like the news media or the phone system," says Jake Batsell. "The quickest and most efficient thing to do is just put a status update on Facebook or Twitter and let people know that, 'Yes, this just happened near me but I'm okay.'"

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