The year is almost over, and as we prepare to ring in 2024, Storyful has rounded up some of the most memorable user-generated content moments from global media coverage. This blog looks back at the team’s past year of verification, from on-the-ground footage from the Israel-Hamas conflict and Miami wildfires to Santa Cruz flooding and Northern Lights action.
Early January 2023 saw evacuation orders taking place in Santa Cruz, where severe flooding struck and prompted hundreds of residents to relocate.
February kicked off on ice—
at least for this figure-skating teen in Texas,
and later that month, an RV was seen toppling into a river in Santa Clarita, California, after heavy rain and flooding caused an embankment to collapse, local reports said.
Upward lightning was seen shooting across the night sky near northern Mississippi and southern Tennessee on February 15,
and one month later, these French diners were captured enjoying their wine at an outdoor cafe as they watched a raging protest on the raising of the national retirement age from afar.
Just a few days earlier, a vehicle was sent flying several feet into the air after being hit by a tire from an adjacent vehicle on the Ronald Reagan Freeway in Los Angeles, catching global viral attention as one of our top-downloaded clips of the year,
and a rainbow appeared behind a line of scorched cars in the midst of the Maui wildfires.
Smoke and fog hit New York City in June, wafting over from the hundreds of wildfires that burned throughout Canada this summer.
Wildfires also hit Greece this summer, as seen in this clip of the island of Corfu;
Meanwhile, Brooklyn dealt with the opposite problem in September: severe flooding that forced Governor Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency across the region.
November saw global unrest as a series of breaking news moments unfolded, from the violent Dublin riots following a stabbing incident near a local school
to the Indian tunnel rescue, missing persons in Guatemala, and intense activity at Mexico’s Popocatepetl Volcano.
To end 2023, Storyful’s editorial team has continued to focus heavily on the biggest global news story of the year: the Israel-Hamas conflict, where on-the-ground UGC tells the rest of the world what’s going on. Breaking news verification has never played such a vital role in delivering context to the story behind the headlines.
To remain in the loop on current events and the biggest news stories as they unfold, contact publishers@storyful.com today to learn how Newswire by Storyful can support 24/7 breaking news coverage.
