2. Why Utilize Social Media?
• Social media largely has become one of the quickest and most convenient
ways to connect with news and other people.
• When disaster strikes, many times power lines are destroyed and traditional
methods of contact with first responders or emergency relief services are
unavailable.
3. Relevance
• Pew Research Center (2017)
• 70% of allAmericans use some form of social media
• 67% of American Adults receive at least some of their news from social media
• 50% of Facebook users receive news from Facebook alone.
4. Notable Uses of Social Media in
Emergency Situations -Twitter
• Nursing home in Dickinson,Texas, during Hurricane Harvey
responders (“Hurricane Harvey: Social Media Storm”, 2017).
• Unable to reach first responders
• Photo posted toTwitter was retweeted 4800 times
• Pushed to the top of the priority list for responders
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/us/nursing-home-houston-texas.html
5. Notable Uses of Social Media during Hurricane
Harvey - Facebook
• A woman during Hurricane Harvey could not get a response from first
responders (Van Dyke, M. B., Lewis, C., & Lvtvynenko, J., 2017).
• Used social media to have someone contact the fire department.
• Fire department was able to rescue her and her 2 children from rising water.
6. Thesis
• With the rising use of technology for outreach amongst a myriad of social
groups, emergency relief services are becoming redefined using social
media. In this respect, social media correlates with emergency relief
services in effectiveness.
7. Research Questions
• Does preparation on social media help with the efficiency of emergency
relief services?
• Does social media create an increased awareness of both disasters occurring
and relief services offered?
• Do the benefits of accurate information about emergency services outweigh
the amount of misinformation?
8. Literature Reviewed
• Measuring User Credibility in Social Media by Mohammad-Ali Abbasi and Huan Liu
• Flooding Facebook – the use of social media during the Queensland andVictorian
floods by Deanne Bird, Megan Ling and Katharine Haynes
• Social Media in Disaster Risk Reduction and Crisis Management by David E.
Alexander
• Social Media and Disasters: A Functional Framework for Social Media Use in
Disaster Planning, Response, and Research by J. Brian Houston et al.
• Emergency Management,Twitter, and Social Media Evangelism by Mark Latonero
and Irina Shklovski
9. Emergency Preparedness
• Relaying and broadcasting information prior to an emergency related event
happening is crucial to the efficiency of services.
• Informed and prepared people are more resilient when disaster strikes (Abbasi & Liu,
2013).
• However, information about preparation normally is only found when
sought out.
• Social media bridges the gap between those who actively seek out
information and those who do not (Houston et al., 2015).
10. Emergency Preparedness (Continued)
• Sites like Facebook andTwitter provide a bridge to for those not actively
seeking out information via shared information from users who have found
the information (Houston, 2015).
• People happen upon information they would not even think about searching everyday
on social media.
• Also assists in sending information already affected to regions not yet
affected (Alexander, 2014).
11. Awareness of Disasters and Relief Services
• Microblogging
• Form of social media where short messages can be broadcasted to networks regarding
specific people and groups (Latonero & Shklovski, 2011)
• Command and Control Model vs. Collaborative Model of Communication
• Command and Control (one-way, heavily monitored communication) is traditionally used by
ERS, while Collaborative (dialogue and two-way communication) is used in social media
(Houston, 2015)
• ERS transitioning to a more collaborative model on social media has proven more effective
for services.
12. Awareness of Disasters and Relief Services
(continued)
• Collaborative model can be utilized as:
• A crowdsourcing tool
• 1% create, 10% validate, 89% use (Alexander, 2014)
• Tool for Listening to everyday people and their experiences, concerns, and feelings
• Monitoring information about those in danger as well as accuracy of information
13. Accurate Information vs. Misinformation
• Validation of information is crucial when allocating time and resources
(Abbasi & Liu, 2013)
• Command and control model
• Useful for monitoring info to ensure certainty about need (2014)
• Collaborative model
• At risk for faulty information (Alexander, 2014)
14. Accurate Information vs. Misinformation
(continued)
• Credibility on social media is many times measured by popularity (Abbasi &
Liu,2013)
• Potential risk for ERS
• The sheer amount of information and contributors can correct any errors
(Bird et al., 2012)
• Knowledgeable people
• Monitored groups or forums
15. Conclusions
• Social media is correlated to enhancement of efficiency in emergency
preparedness
• Collaborative model is more efficient on social media, leading to a more
broad awareness of disaster and disaster relief
• Crowdsourced information on social media is normally accurate and
misinformation is corrected quickly
• Social media is correlated to efficiency of emergency relief services
16. Future Research
• How the collaborative model on social media produces benefits for survivors
trying to contact first responders
• Implementing more features into social media regarding safety of survivors
• Creating an open crowdsourced map of information about the disaster
17. References
• References
• Abbasi, M. A., & Liu, H. (2013, April). Measuring User Credibility in Social Media. In SBP (pp. 441-448).
• Alexander, D. E. (2014). Social media in disaster risk reduction and crisis management. Sci Eng Ethics, 20(3), 717-733. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11948-013-9502-z
• Bird, D., Ling, M., & Haynes, K. (2012). Flooding Facebook: The use of social media during the Queensland and Victorian floods. Australian Journal of Emergency
Management, 27(1), 27–33
• Blanchard, H., Carvin, A., Whittaker, M. E., Fitzgerald, M., Harman, W., & Humphrey, B. (2010). The case for integrating crisis response with social media. White Paper.
Washington, DC: American Red Cross.
• Gao, H., Barbier, G., & Goolsby, R. (2011). Harnessing the crowdsourcing power of social media for disaster relief. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 26(3), 10-14.
• Grieco, E. (2017, November 02). More Americans are turning to multiple social media sites for news. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/02/more-americans-are-turning-to-multiple-social-media-sites-for-news/
• Goolsby, R. (2010). Social media as crisis platform: The future of community maps/crisis maps. Association for Computing Machinery Transactions on Intelligent
Systems and Technology, 1(1), Article No. 7, 1–11
• Houston, J. B., Hawthorne, J., Perreault, M. F., Park, E. H., Goldstein Hode, M., Halliwell, M. R., ... & Griffith, S. A. (2015). Social media and disasters: a functional
framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research. Disasters, 39(1), 1-22.
18. References
• Hurricane Harvey:The U.S.'s First Social Media Storm. (2017, August 30). Retrieved November 20, 2017, from
http://time.com/4921961/hurricane-harvey-twitter-facebook-social-media/
• Latonero, M., & Shklovski, I. (2011). Emergency management,Twitter, and social media evangelism.
• Safety Check | Facebook. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2017, from https://www.facebook.com/help/695378390556779
• Shearer, E., & Gottfried, J. (2017, September 07). News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017. Retrieved November 22,
2017, from http://www.journalism.org/2017/09/07/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2017/
• Social Media Fact Sheet. (2017, January 12). Retrieved November 20, 2017, from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-
sheet/social-media/
• Van Dyke, M. B., Lewis, C., & Lvtvynenko, J. (2017, August 28). Fake News And Scams Are GoingAroundAboutThe Deadly
Storm InTexas. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/false-information-about-texas-
storm?utm_term=.wbnNYLvKm#.ybOjnLz1r
• Yeomans, M. (2012, November 06). Social media's crucial role in disaster relief efforts. Retrieved November 17, 2017, from
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/social-media-hurricane-sandy-emergency-planners
