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Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations - 17 views

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started by jessica_mann on 26 Mar 12
  • jessica_mann
    #1 jessica_mann on 26 Mar 12
     
    Lindsay, B.R. (2011). Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations. Congressional Research Service Reports. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R41987.pdf

    This article by the Federation of American Scientists explores how social media is currently being used in crisis response, being the fourth most popular source for accessing emergency information. Lindsay states that social media use in organisational emergency response can be divided into two broad categories: passive use and systematic use. Passive use includes disseminating information by user feedback such as messages, wall posts and polls; and systematic usage, which include the issuing of warnings and emergency communication, requests for assistance, establishing situational awareness by monitoring user activity and user uploaded images to conduct damage estimates.

    The article suggests that social media could supplement the 911 emergency service, highlighting the issues arising when telephone lines are down citing the example of the 2010 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, where people tweeted for assistance when the 911 telephone system was inaccessible.

    Lindsay also suggests that social media platforms could be used to aid in post-disaster rebuilding by helping process applications for disaster loans and other financial assistance.

    The article also addresses the potential disadvantages associated with the incorporation of social media into official emergency response strategies. Due to the amount of people participating, inaccurate, outdated or false information may be circulated. For example, an incorrect location of a hazard may be broadcast or, in the case of the Japanese Earthquake, where requests for help were retweeted after the victims had already been rescued. It is also possible for social media to be used maliciously in times of crisis either through pranks or terrorist attempts creating a need for sanctions to be developed to deter and punish individuals who intentionally and maliciously circulate false information. Other potential pitfalls of networked disaster response relate to issues of privacy including datamining of personal information and the administrative cost associated with facilitating a social media program for emergencies.
  • ruenhongo
    #2 ruenhongo on 02 Apr 12
     
    This article relates to my case because it is about disaster management and how social media is used by people in different ways. In the article by Smith-Stewart (2012), it states that people were using the Message Board to let their family know that they were safe. There is a link between the two articles because they discuss how social media is used to inform others, raise awareness and also to receive victim requests for assistance. The article also stated how the Army used Twitter to provide news and updates about a crisis and how the Red Cross used Facebook to issue alerts. In the article by Collins (2011), it mentions how the military need to familiarise themselves with social media in order to provide assistance to the volunteers and the victims.

    I found this article very reliable because the author is an analyst in American National Government and it was also very recent which made the statistics and the information relevant to what is going on now. There was a large and diverse range of references listed throughout the article which showed that the author received a range of ideas from different sources. The article was relevant to the topic because it discussed how social media is changing the world in which we communicate and how disaster management is becoming easier through this new form of communication. I found it really useful and valuable because it was recent as well as spoke about different issues such as emergency warnings, situational awareness and request for assistance.

    References:

    Collins, S. (May 19, 2011). Conflict and Disaster Management in a Hyper-connected World - Cooperative, Collaborative, Real Time. Acidlabs. Retrieved from http://www.acidlabs.org/2011/05/19/conflict-and-disaster-management-in-a-hyperconnected-world-cooperative-collaborative-real-time/ (Accessed 16/03/2012)

    Lindsay, B. R. (2011). Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations. Congressional Research Service Reports. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R41987.pdf (Accessed 01/04/2012)

    Smith-Stewart, H. (March 2, 2012). Japan's social safety net: Facebook's Disaster Message Board. ZDNet. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/asia/japans-social-safety-net-facebooks-disaster-message-board/1220 (Accessed 16/03/2012)
  • Jocelyn Workman
    #3 Jocelyn Workman on 07 Apr 12
     
    This CRS (Congressional Research Service) Report for Congress by Lindsay, provides an organisational perspective of how social media have been and might be used to improve emergency response and recovery by US agencies.

    Lindsay found that most emergency management organisations have confined their use of social media to disseminating public safety information, but proposes an alternative approach to Congress, to use social media systematically as an emergency management tool. One of his proposals is to have response organisations monitor social media sources during emergencies to help establish situational awareness. Vieweg, Hughes, Starbird and Palen (2010) put together a framework that could be used to develop a software that would automate the monitoring of tweets for situational awareness during an emergency, following their analysis of "situational update" information tweeted by individuals experiencing fires and floods in the US Spring of 2009. Freeman (2011) found that the Queensland Police Service used Twitter and Facebook extensively to broadcast accurate information and correct misinformation to those affected by the Queensland Floods of 2010/2011 and Tropical Cyclone Yasi in 2011, combining bottom up sources with top down broadcasts.

    Lindsay focuses on social media usage to communications with the public. Yates and Paquette's article (2010) on the other hand, provides the first example of the U.S. Government's reliance "on social media to coordinate knowledge and action between cooperating agencies" (p. 7). Use of wikis became a major tool to allow the sharing and collaborating of knowledge following the Haiti earthquake within AFCAT (U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff's Crisis Action Team) and between agencies to provide a more efficient and effective emergency management response.

    A useful article providing an insight into US emergency organisations use of social media, with future directions for emergency management. Congressional sources provide an insight not readily accessible.

    References

    Freeman, M. (2011). Fire, Wind and Water: Social Networks in Natural Disasters. Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 13 (2), 69 -79.

    Lindsay, B.R. (2011). Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations. Congressional Research Service Reports. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R41987.pdf

    Yates, D & Paquette, S. (2010) Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, International Journal of Information Management, 31 (1), 6-13.
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401210001453)

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