Crisis in a Networked World: Features of Computer-Mediated Communication in the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech Event - 9 views
started by jessica_mann on 26 Mar 12
started by jessica_mann on 26 Mar 12
Start a New Topic » « Back to the Net 308/508 Internet Collaboration and Organisation S1 2012 group
Social Science Computer Review 27: 467. Retrieved from http://ssc.sagepub.com/content/27/4/467
This article, produced by the University of Colorado, explores computer-mediated communication used among the students and the general public during and after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting.
Society practices resilience by banding together using at-hand resources during times of crisis to recover and cope with unexpected and tragic circumstances. In contemporary times, people are turning more and more to social media for peer-distributed information to receive localised, relevant, timely and accurate updates during emergency situations.
The article explores how networked communication platforms can move from an 'unofficial backchannel' to a more formalised system for emergency and crisis management given that people are becoming increasingly more reliant on social media to gather information that may not otherwise be available. Social media is also advantages in disaster response as it provides a way for people not in the immediate locale of a crisis to contribute and interact with those directly in the crisis zone.
A visual representation in the form of a timeline of activity during the first nine hours of the Virginia Tech shooting is featured in the article, including both 'official' (University-distributed email and press conferences etc.) and 'unofficial' (user-created Facebook groups and wikis etc.) communication.
One of the most significant aspects of the article was the discussion of how, in an act of collective problem solving, a user generated Facebook group dedicated to the shooting was able to identify all but one of the victims before the list of names was officially released.
The article does note however that problem solving to this extent may not be possible in large scale, wide-spread crisis like fires and hurricanes. The Virginia Tech crisis was confined to one institution in one location allowing for more effective resolution process.
Both articles argue that people are turning to social media because it helps the disaster survivors, the curious onlookers and the volunteers to find information and to assist others. Torrey et al. (2007) aims to show how ordinary people were coordinating with each other, forming connections in order to help those during a crisis. This was shown in this article by them discussing how the American Red Cross coordinated and flew volunteers into a disaster region and these volunteers were found and managed online.
I found that this article was very reliable because they used a graph and an image as an example of their analysis. There was also a large and various range of references used to make their point in the article. At the end of the article, the authors mentioned briefly what qualifications they had which added to the reliability. This is a relevant article to the topic because it does analyse how social media has made a difference to crisis management which I found very useful as well. The graph and image implemented in the article was very valuable because it showed their results in a visual way.
References:
Hughes, A.L, Liu, S.B, Palen, L & Vieweg, S. (2009). Crisis in a Networked World: Features of Computer-Mediated Communication in the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech Event.
Social Science Computer Review 27: 467. Retrieved from http://ssc.sagepub.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/content/27/4/467.full.pdf+html (Accessed 01/04/2012)
Torrey, C., Burke, M., Lee, M., Dey, A., Fussell, S., & Kiesler, S. (2007). Connected Giving: Ordinary People Coordinating Disaster Relief on the Internet. Human - Computer Interaction Institute, 51. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=hcii (Accessed 16/03/2012)