Andy Carvin, social media strategist for NPR.org, lays out some of the innovative approaches that NPR has taken over the past couple of years to foster high-quality journalism in an age when the public demands engagement and participation.

As Hurricane Gustav headed toward the mainland last year, Andy (@acarvin on Twitter) formed a Ning group -- Gustav Information Center -- and got hundreds of volunteers to participate in sharing information during the course of a single weekend, largely through the power of Twitter and Facebook.

"Part of what I do at NPR is to really help our journalists think about how can online communities be used to improve the quality and diversity of our journalism?" he says in this 9-minute video interview, conducted at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas, in March 2009.