Summit County Is a Finalist for Social Media Golden Award

Many people rely on traditional media for their understanding of the world. Yet, the past 5 years have brought on a renaissance of the local organizations’ ability to let people know about issues that may impact them.

While we are undoubtedly biased, we may even say that social media is more important in many circumstances than traditional media. Case in point is the Rockport Rocks Fire. In an emergency you may tune in to Channel 5 to understand what is happening. Yet, that information has to pass through various filters, and hours later, via a helicopter, and some random person staged in front of a burned out building, it may get to the audience.

The better angle, should you really need it, is social media.

In our case, Summit County is a finalist for The Golden Post’s award for social media during an emergency. Our Summit County Public and Community Affairs person, Julie Booth, is responsible for informing the public.

While a number of issues such as school funding, Mountain Accord, and traffic dominate the headlines, we are happy to know that Summit County is being recognized for over-achieving at its role in informing the public for the information that could actually save our lives.

It’s one thing to read about the opening of a new restaurant; it’s another to know when to leave an area because fire is fast approaching.

We wish Summit County luck in winning the award; however we realize that we as a community have already won because Summit County has already invested in someone who can inform us of the important things … in a seconds notice.

We know we aren’t always complimentary on the Park Rag, but this an area where we think Summit County is doing a great job.