Twitter turns ten: its use to date in disaster management (original) (raw)

Using social media to build community disaster resilience

Several emergency management researchers and practitioners have suggested that the use of social media can help build community disaster resilience. This article develops a strategic framework for the social aspects of disaster resilience-building based on the Australian National Strategy for Disaster Resilience. It then investigates the current and potential use of social media related to the strategic framework. The article concludes by discussing the possible implications for emergency managers of using social media within such a framework.

The Use of Twitter by Official Institutions in Disaster Risk Communication and Resilience

Journal of emergency management and disaster communications, 2022

This study aims to explore the use of Twitter by Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) in 2021, which is determined as the year of disaster education. Within the scope of this study, the tweets of the AFAD Presidency in the media section between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, were examined. The tweets were categorized considering hazard types (geological, hydrological and climatological, biological, technological accidents and Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN), forest fires, migration, and other) and phases of the

The Use of Twitter by Official Institutions in Disaster Risk Communication and Resilience

Journal of Emergency Management and Disaster Communications

This study aims to explore the use of Twitter by Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) in 2021, which is determined as the year of disaster education. Within the scope of this study, the tweets of the AFAD Presidency in the media section between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, were examined. The tweets were categorized considering hazard types (geological, hydrological and climatological, biological, technological accidents and Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN), forest fires, migration, and other) and phases of the disaster management cycle (pre-disaster (mitigation, and preparedness), response, and post-disaster recovery). Five hundred and eighty tweets related to disasters were identified including the number of 88 disaster irrelevant tweets. Most of the tweets were related to hydrological and meteorological hazards. Regarding the biological disaster-induced COVID-19, only two tweets specific to the response process were identified. This study pr...

Social Media in Crisis Events Open Networks and Collaboration supporting Disaster Response and Recovery

Large-scale crises challenge the ability of public safety and security organisations to respond efficient and effectively. Meanwhile, citizens' adoption of mobile technology and rich social media services is dramatically changing the way crisis responses develop. Empowered by new communication media (smartphones, text messaging, internet-based applications and social media), citizens are the in situ first sensors. However, this entire social media arena is unchartered territory to most public safety and security organisations.

Review of Social Media in Disaster Response (2013) by Liza Potts

Can Build for Participation is the first of Association of Teachers of Technical Writing's (ATTW's) book series in technical and professional communication. The book addresses the need for flexible and participatory communication systems by examining social Web use during major disasters. Potts argues that social Web technologies have transformed how information is shared across networks in times of dire need. She suggests that system designers and technical communicators (or what she terms more broadly as experience architects) can learn from participants using social networks to collect data, validate information, and share knowledge. Surveying numerous disaster cases-particularly Hurricane Katrina (2005), the London bombings , and the Mumbai attacks (2008)-Potts calls us to engage in experience architecture, that is, the interdisciplinary work of architecting participatory systems that support the communication needs of participants as they create and circulate knowledge across multiple online networks.

Social Media in Disaster Management

Provision of an accurate and timely disaster relief effort requires an insightful informational coverage of a crisis situation. Social media has a potential of providing a large amount of information generated by people about different aspects of a certain crisis situation. However, emergency-oriented social media utilization is still at an embryonic stage of its understanding. So, in this report 10 research studies were reviewed in an attempt to gain some understanding about this approach. As it appeared, crowdsourced information allows to get a versatile and insightful understanding of a crisis situation, but, as with any Big Data, there are major challenges of making use of high volumes of diverse information, in terms of extraction and representation of relevant and accurate information. Furthermore, other research studies proposed extraction/representation techniques which were primarily aimed at thematic and geographical clustering of information. As it appeared from the real cases of social media application during emergencies, there is still no standardized approach on how such information can be handled, but in those cases, emergency responders still managed to successfully apply their own methods of primarily geographical and thematic clustering of information, while still being greatly challenged by overwhelming amount of user-generated information. Thus, the success could perhaps be explained by social media being used primarily as a complement/enhancement of other already proved to be effective techniques. Further exploration would be needed in order to gain a more complete understanding of the current state emergency-oriented social media utilization, which could later be used as a theoretical framework for a new research study in this area.

Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research

Disasters, 2014

A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012-13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.

Use of Twitter in disaster rescue: lessons learned from Hurricane Harvey

International Journal of Digital Earth, 2020

Despite the increasingly prominent role of social media in disaster events, studies analyzing its use in rescue operations remain scanty. Hurricane Harvey hit Texas with unprecedented rainfall and flooding in 2017 and was marked by widespread use of social media for rescue requests. We conducted a survey of 195 Twitter users in Houston and surrounding communities who had requested for rescue during Harvey. The objective was to investigate our targeted group's socioeconomic and flood exposure characteristics, report the effectiveness of Twitter, and highlight lessons learnt and suggestions made for its use in future rescue missions. Survey revealed that those requesting rescue on Twitter were better educated, employed (80%), and homeowners (81%). Majority of them were flooded (87%), but remained satisfied with current location and did not consider moving. Calling relatives and friends for rescue was most responsive and yielded higher assistance-provided rate than using Twitter. Our respondents found Twitter helpful, but identified issues such as not knowing when volunteers received their requests or whether they would send help. They suggested promoting Twitter accounts and hashtags that accept emergency requests. This study provides baseline information and actionable suggestions for first responders, community managers, and resilience practitioners to improve future rescue missions.

Disaster Management and Communication Technology: The Prospect of Social Media

International Handbook of Disaster Research, 2022

A major concern in disaster management is how to minimize damage to the society. In this endeavor, the prime focus has always been given to saving lives. However, in recent times issues associated with loss of property have emerged as another area of concern. During disaster, the most critical challenge before the disaster managers is how to sustain communication with the affected population and also with those who are likely to be impacted by it. Such a challenge generates the understanding that communication tools do have a significant role in managing disasters. Moreover, the above thinking conventionally has been found to be channelized through the traditional Media like Print media, Radio, and Television. Due to the faster changes in communication technology, we have now social media, which has emerged as an alternative communication tool for study among the scholars working on disaster research. Taking into account the above technological shift, this chapter focuses into how the Indian government