Cataclysmic events such as Hurricane Katrina do not create trends in content, but they do help to forge into harder forms trends that were already forming. In the wake of this natural and human disaster Web content has emerged as the definitive focus for people needed both fast-breaking general news and very personal news on events and locations impacted by powerful events. Traditional outlets that once leaned tentatively on user-generated media discovered that combining personal content with their professional product can point the way to both hard facts and a sense of community that is impossible to replicate with just a polished professional product. The raw, the cooked and the cooking are all required to provide today's definitive picture of unfolding events to the satisfaction of sophisticated content users.

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