The Role of Social Media in Emergency Management, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The advent of the Internet has provided a platform for new forms of communication and new arenas of connectivity on an unprecedented scale. Social media have utilized that platform to offer users a wide range of communication options, from broad information- and content-based services such as Facebook to media through which users can communicate instantaneously, such as Twitter and Instagram. The opportunities afforded by social media are of particular interest and value in the context of the Emergency Management field, as they can be used in a variety of ways. Examples of how social media can benefit those in the Emergency Management field include their capacity to provide real-time alerts to the public, serve as a platform for communication and coordination among emergency responders and officials, and host general information about disaster preparedness and other aspects of Emergency Management that can be useful to government, private organizations, and members of the public. Because social media have evolved and grown so rapidly, the manner in which they are used in the context of Emergency Management has often lagged behind their general use for the day-to-day purposes of the public. This paper provides a general overview of social media, an examination of how social media have been and continue to be used in the context of Emergency Management, and a discussion about the future of social media as tools for enhancing and expanding on the capacities of those in the field of Emergency Management.

Understanding the Social Media Environment

In its earliest stages, the Internet served primarily as repository of information. This repository may have been more dynamic than, for example, a collection of books in the local library, but it still functioned largely as a storehouse of websites which performed various duties for the sites’ hosts. Websites provided windows into the services offered by business and commercial enterprises, housed records and historical information, hosted links to government agencies, and operated in a variety of other roles. The overarching characteristic of these used was that were primarily one-way lines of communication; Internet users logged onto websites, viewed, read, or listened to the information hosted there, and moved on to the next site. While this is obviously an oversimplification of the myriad ways in which the Internet worked, it does provide a general overview of how many people used the Internet in its infancy. The core infrastructure of the Internet fostered new avenues of communication and connectivity, but the evolution of the Internet, and how it grew to become a ubiquitous component of daily life for millions of people, was not something that happened overnight. What gave rise to the Internet as it is used today was an outgrowth of a number of different phenomena, from trial-and-error startup companies to advances in technology that made access simpler and faster. Over the course of the last two decades the Internet grew from a mere curiosity to a crucial set of technologies that underpinned virtually all aspects of personal and professional life.

The development and evolution of social media sites, coupled with the explosion of portable devices that make it possible for users to access the Internet from virtually any location, have fundamentally altered the ways that the Internet is used. Instead of providing a unidirectional stream of information aimed at each user, the Internet is now a transactional medium, serving not just as a platform for information, but as a platform for communication. Internet users now communicate directly with each other, and also engage in dynamic relationships with the hosts of websites and of other tools and technologies available through the Internet. Early social media platforms such as MySpace were, at least in their early stages, still mired in the Internet-as-library model, serving primarily as a storehouse for biographical and personal information placed there by individual account holders. The birth of the social media site Facebook fundamentally reshaped the ways that individuals use social media; the Facebook platform grew out of the somewhat-static model of sites like MySpace into dynamic multi-directional conduit of information that allows users to develop personalized pages while also communicating with other users (Crowe, 2012).

As millions of people flocked to Facebook, social media developers took their cues from the way that the service provided a platform for communication and interaction. Subsequent services such as Twitter –often referred to as a “microblogging” site- have further streamlined the user experience, stripping away many of the trappings of earlier social media platforms, and leaving users with a service that is focused primarily on sending and receiving brief missives. These messages, limited to 140 characters, allow users to do everything from discuss the latest news stories to sharing personal information. Such platforms make it possible for messages to be disseminated far more rapidly than they would otherwise have been in the age of traditional media such as television, radio, and newspapers. They have also made it possible for users to become active participants in the dissemination of news; users are instrumental in determining which stories are deemed important enough to be shared on a wide scale (Crowe, 2012). This has upended the typical roles of traditional media, making users an integral component of the editorial process previously reserved for operators of traditional media.

The definition of social media extends beyond just the services offered by platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In a sense, the entirety of the Internet has become a social media environment. The information on sites such as Wikipedia, which functions as a sort of digital encyclopedia, is available for users to edit and update. This free access to users means that incorrect or misleading information can be placed on the site; at the same time, the massive number of users of Wikipedia tends to ensure that such erroneous information will be seen and corrected by other users (Chan, 2014). Individual Internet users can also develop and post their own websites, and the presence of blogs (a shortened form of the term “weblog”) has become ubiquitous. News outlets, private companies, government agencies, and other organizations also publish blogs, and many of these sites allow for two-way communication between hosts and users. Other sites allow users to post digital photo albums and other content, share common interests in different subjects, and foster aggregation and information sharing in myriad other ways. Newer social media sites such as Instagram meld the hosting of photographs and message-sending, further blurring the lines between using the Internet as an information repository and as a platform for communication.

Chan (2014) lists the “5 Cs” of social media characteristics: Collectivity, Connectivity, Completeness, and Collaboration. In this framework, social media can be broadly defined, with a variety of services and platforms fitting the general criteria. Each form of social media shares some aspect of these general characteristics, allowing users to share information in a dynamic and interactive process.  These platforms also foment the development of individual user accounts and identities, which serves to highlight the most active users while also making it possible to maintain a measure of anonymity on the web (Crowe, 2012). Users form relationships on these platforms, and the most active users are also often those who become most popular or visible. Such heightened visibility makes it possible for some users to more readily and easily disseminate or share information, a phenomenon which highlights the need for social media users to use discretion and good judgment when determining the value of the information found on the these sites. While social media platforms make it possible to share and receive valuable and important information, they also allow users to share content that is misleading, false, or even dangerous (Crowe, 2012). Social media managers in the Emergency Management field must consider the myriad ways that social media can be used when determining how best to disseminate information and utilize social media as a collaborative tool before, during, and after emergency situations (Wood, 2014).

Crowe (2012) offers a set of “fundamental rules” of social media that are even simpler than Chan’s 5 C’s according to Crowe social media “facilitate conversation; (possess) transparent intentions; (are) cost effective; (and are) nearly instantaneous.” Despite these seemingly basic rules, the complete set of social media numbers in the thousands, including websites, app-based services, and other platforms. The sheer enormity of the scope of social media would make it impossible for emergency managers to utilize all or even most of these platforms in the context of emergency management. Moreover, the number and type of different social media platforms is constantly growing and changing as new platforms emerge and gain in popularity as old or outdated platforms fade into obscurity. A decade ago the web-based social media platform MySpace was enormously popular; in the intervening years it has been supplanted by direct challengers such as Facebook and by even more simple and streamlined platforms such as Twitter. Given the fact that emergency managers have neither the time nor the resources to master and utilize every social media platform, the most important goal must be to develop a conceptual understanding of social media (Crowe, 2012). Such understanding will allow emergency managers to choose the best and most applicable social media platforms for a given emergency and to remain flexible and adaptive as new social media platforms emerge.

Just as it is important for emergency managers to understand what sort of social media platforms are available and useful in their field, it is also necessary to develop an understanding of the demographics of social media users. While there may be a general perception that young people are the primary users of social media, this perception is inaccurate. There are certain social media platforms that are more popular with specific demographic groups, and utilization rates are highest among the age group of 18 to 29 year-olds (Crowe, 2012). Concurrent with these rates, however, the fastest growing group of social media users is between the ages of 50 and 64 (Crowe, 2012).  Such facts must be taken into account when developing social media strategies for emergency management; it is important to eschew assumptions and avoid buying into “disaster mythologies” (Crowe, 2012) that may otherwise lead to overlooking important and readily-available social media tools.

Emergency Management: Background and Overview

When considering the term “emergency management,” the first images many people might call to mind would be of police officers, firefighters, and other first responders. For those who do, it would certainly be understandable; television, newspapers, and other media outlets are replete with pictures and video footage of first responders at the scene of earthquakes, train derailments, terrorist attacks, car accidents, and any number of other emergencies. Those with even the most tenuous connection to the field of emergency management, however, understand that while first responders play critical roles in the performance of their duties, they are just one component of a much larger system. Emergency management does not just include the police officers and firefighters who respond to disasters and emergencies; it also includes those who coordinate the efforts of those first responders, those who plan ahead of time to ensure that those first responders are able to effectively carry out their work, those who deal with the short- and long-term aftermath of emergencies, and all the individuals and organizations that establish regulatory, supervisory, and accountability frameworks within which emergency management takes place.

The field of Emergency Management as it exists today is both relatively young and rapidly evolving. As Philips et al (2011) note, “fifty years ago the profession of emergency management did not exist.” As recently as the mid-20^th century the responses to emergencies both big and small were typically handled at local, regional, or state levels. The role of the federal government in handling large-scale and national emergencies and disasters grew out of the overall expansion of federal powers and jurisdiction that began under President Franklin Roosevelt (Phillips et al, 2011). In the decades after World War II, in an era known then and now as the Cold War, emergency and disaster preparedness became a major priority for the federal government, and legislation drafted in the 1970s and 1980s helped to underpin the development of federal agencies and other organizations that were focused on emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. The creation of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) was among the most notable examples of the federal government’s newfound emphasis on emergency and disaster preparedness.

The development of such agencies and organizations at the federal level did not and does not mean that the roles played by state and local governments and private organizations are any less critical than they had been prior to the advent of FEMA and other federal agencies. In most instances of emergency the question of who will respond to the crisis is dependent on a wide range of factors; among these are matters of the scale and scope of the emergency and which individual, group, or agency has jurisdiction and responsibility. The matter of jurisdiction and responsibility are enormously significant, as recent history has shown. Among the most well-known examples of how jurisdiction and responsibility for response and recovery can play a role in how emergencies are handled was seen in the response to Hurricane Karina, which hit the southern United States in 2005. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana was particularly hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina, and the immediate damage and the post-storm recovery had a severe impact on thousands of people. Thanks to satellite imagery, computer modeling, and other technology the seriousness of the storm and its path were closely monitored before it made landfall, though a last-minute turn by the storm brought it closer to New Orleans than many experts had predicted (Phillips et al, 2011).

Despite the information available to local, state, and federal officials before Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. coast, the preparation for and response to the storm seemed woefully inadequate. Thousands of Louisiana residents were displaced from their homes; many of the displacements were permanent, as homes and buildings across the state were leveled. The levees surrounding New Orleans –which had been built and maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers over the course of many decades- failed to withstand the punishment wrought by the storm, and many sections of New Orleans and surrounding areas were flooded for weeks after the storm had passed. The death and destruction that Hurricane Katrina levied against New Orleans was nothing short of catastrophic, and many were left wondering if those agencies and individuals charged with preparing for and responding to hurricanes had failed to live up to their responsibilities. Louisiana governor Ray Nagin bore much criticism at the state level, and in turn Nagin pointed the finger at FEMA and the administration of President George W. Bush, asserting that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was both slow to come and inadequate to meet the demand of recovering from the storm.

The circumstances of Hurricane Katrina highlight some of the fundamental components of emergency management. While Governor Nagin accused FEMA and the federal government of failing to respond effectively to the storm, the Bush administration and FEMA officials countered by asserting that Governor Nagin and other state officials had not done an effective job of preparing for the hurricane and had also failed to effectively communicate to the federal government about what sort of response he required or expected. This demonstrates the imperative for adequate planning before a disaster and for timely and complete communication and coordination between and among responders during and after an emergency or disaster. It also makes clear that the term “emergency management” is quite broad, and covers the activities and responsibilities of a wide range of public and private individuals and organizations, from planning officials at the local government level to first responders to federal agencies like FEMA and all the way up to the President of the United States. In order to understand the role that social media can and does play in the field of emergency management, and to predict how the advent of social media will bring changes to the field in the future, it is first necessary to discuss the fundamental nature and structure of the field of emergency management.

There are three general areas in which Emergency Management systems and agents operate: Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (training.fema.gov). Emergency management is not simply about responding to crises as they happen; it is also about developing plans and systems to prepare for emergencies and to manage the tasks involved in post-emergency recover. Returning again to Hurricane Katrina as an example, the necessity of effective post-emergency recovery is clearly evident. While the storm itself came and went fairly quickly, its damaging effects did not just linger long afterwards, in many ways they worsened as the weeks went on. Thousands of evacuees from New Orleans and the surrounding areas had been transported as far away as the state of Texas; those who recall Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath also likely remember images on the evening news of thousands of evacuees strained in the Houston Astrodome without adequate food, water for weeks after the storm had passed.

While those evacuees were strained in Texas, their cities and homes were ravaged by floodwaters for days and even weeks after the storm had passed. When considering the crises surrounding Hurricane Katrina, it becomes clear just how broad the scope of the emergency management field really is. The Army Corps of Engineers which built the New Orleans levees decades before Hurricane Katrina hit were part of the storm’s emergency management; the local and state officials who worked to coordinate the city’s evacuation were part of the storm’s emergency management; FEMA and the federal government were part of the storm’s emergency management; even those who worked in Texas to assist the evacuees were part of the emergency management of a storm that hit hundreds of miles away. The effective planning and coordination involved in managing an emergency like a hurricane involves countless numbers of people performing countless numbers of tasks, and even with all of these people bringing their efforts to bear on the matter, it is still possible for things to go wrong, as they often did in the response and recovery efforts involving Hurricane Katrina.

There are innumerable other organizations, both public and private, that are responsible for preparing for and responding to emergencies. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia is tasked with handling a variety of healthcare and medical issues (Phillips et al, 2011). Among their areas of oversight and responsibility are “such topics as bioterrorism, chemical emergencies, radiation emergencies, mass casualties, (and) natural disasters” (Phillips et al, 2011). In order to properly carry out their mission, the CDC collects data and information on diseases, provides educational information to the public about issues such as responding to outbreaks of the flu and other potential epidemics and pandemics, and works to develop treatments and response plans to aid in the response to and recovery from emergencies in their purview.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a federal-level organization that is responsible for, among other things, oversight of hazardous materials. The safe handling, storage, and transportation of hazardous materials are of significant concern; an example of just how significant these concerns are was seen in West Virginia in early 2014. A company named Freedom Industries failed to adequately store their collection of toxic chemicals, and a ruptured storage tank allowed tens of thousands of gallons of toxic materials to seep out into a nearby river. The groundwater in the region was dangerously contaminated by the spill, and residents in the area were without safe water for drinking and bathing. Like Hurricane Katrina, the West Virginia spill highlights the broad scope of emergency management, the problem of inadequate oversight, and the issue of jurisdiction. While the EPA sets standards for how toxic and hazardous materials are to be handled and stored, it is the responsibility of West Virginia’s state and local officials to monitor compliance with such standards and regulations. Moreover, once the crisis has already happened –in this case, once local drinking water has been poisoned- it must be determined how to deal with the response and recovery, and to determine which individuals or organizations are responsible for managing this post-crisis situation.

It is not just local, state, and federal government agencies that are responsible for emergency management. The private sector also has an important role to play in dealing with crises, disasters, and emergencies. In the case of Freedom Industries, for example, it seems clear that the company failed to meet its responsibility to safely handle and store hazardous materials. Responsible corporations and other private-sector organizations have a “moral duty” (Phillips et al, 2011) to ensure that they comply with EPA regulations and otherwise live up to appropriate safety standards. Companies that are hit by storms, earthquakes, or other natural disasters will likely have to coordinate with first responders and other public agencies to assist in response and recovery efforts. Not only do companies have the “moral duty” to do so; they also have the financial and economic incentive to get up and running as quickly and completely as possible (Phillips et al, 2011).

There are also private organizations that function in the public sphere of emergency management. Groups like the Red Cross are comprised of both paid and volunteer workers who are often among the first to aid in recovery efforts after natural disasters and other emergencies. The Red Cross typically works to provide comfort to disaster victims by offering food, clothing, and shelter to those who have been displaced or otherwise affected by storms, earthquakes, outbreaks of illness, and even terrorist attacks (Phillips et al). On an international scale, there are a variety of organizations that work to assist disaster victims; these non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can be seen in action during such crises as the 2008 earthquake in Haiti or the recent typhoons that affected parts of the Philippines and Asia. Like the other organizations discussed herein, these are just a few of the most well-known or most visible public and private organizations involved in the field of emergency management. From local governments and first responders all the way up to international and transnational organizations, the field of emergency management covers a vast amount of people and groups performing a staggering number of tasks and meeting innumerable responsibilities.

In the book “Disasters 2.0,” author Adam Crowe offers a comprehensive discussion about the ways in which social media have been used in the field of emergency management, and provides a list of what he describes as  the “core principles” inherent to the field. They are as follows:

1. Comprehensive- Emergency Managers consider and take into account all hazards, all phases, all stakeholders, and all impacts relevant to disasters.
2. Progressive- Emergency managers anticipate future disasters and take preventive and preparatory measures to build disaster-resistant and disaster-resilient communities.
3. Risk-Driven- Emergency managers use sound risk management principles (hazard identification, risk analysis, and impact analysis) in assigning priorities and resources.
4. Integrated- Emergency managers ensure unity of effort among all levels of government and all elements of a community.
5. Collaborative- Emergency managers create and sustain broad and sincere relationships among individuals and organizations to encourage trust, advocate (for a) team atmosphere, build consensus, and facilitate communication.
6. Coordinated- Emergency managers synchronize the activities of all relevant stakeholders to achive a common purpose.
7. Flexible- Emergency magares use creative and innovative approaches in soloving disaster challenges.
8. Professional- Emergency managers value a science- and knowledge-based approach centered on educations, training, experience, ethical practice, public stewardship, and continuous improvement.

• Excerpted from Disasters 2.0: the Application of Social Media for Modern Emergency Management

While each of the eight principles ascribed to the field of Emergency Management by Crowe are notable and significant, there are several specific points raised by the author that have particular relevance in the context of a discussion about how social media and emergency management intersect and overlap. In the following sections, several examples and illustrations will be discussed that demonstrate how social media has fomented the evolution of the public from the statuses of witnesses and victims of disasters to active participants in the areas of preparedness, response, and recovery. The “stakeholders” described by Crowe are comprised of those who are affected by emergencies as well as those who are tasked with preparing for and responding to emergencies. In a very real sense, the use of social media in emergency management is changing the roles that all stakeholders play where emergencies and disasters are concerned. Through the connections wrought by social media, members of the public are becoming active participants in dealing with emergencies

Social Media and Emergency Management

Social media offers a collective set of resources that has already fundamentally altered the ways in which the emergency management field functions. The three basic components of emergency management –preparedness, response, and recovery- can all be supported and even improved through the incorporation of social media. As discussed in the previous section, one vital aspect of effective emergency management is communication; before, during, and after emergencies, effective communication can mean the difference between life and death. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for example, FEMA was singled out for much of the criticism about the apparently slow, inadequate response. FEMA officials in turn responded that they had not been asked to intervene early enough. As simple as it may appear in hindsight, it is possible that more effective communication between the responsible individuals and agencies may have helped to avert at least some of the catastrophic aftereffects of the storm. While the application of social media in this context may not have offered a relevant solution to the problem, it does highlight a core principle of emergency management: at every stage of the emergency management process, and at all levels, communication is the fundamental ingredient for successful planning, response, and reviver. To the degree that social media fosters new avenues and frameworks for communication, it offers an invaluable new set of tools for the entire field of emergency management.

Government agencies and other organizations must plan as best as possible for emergencies, such as weather-related events, accidents, terrorist attacks, outbreaks of disease and other potential disasters.  Because the Internet in general, and social media in particular, operate as effective means by which information can be disseminated and communication can be fostered, they serve as invaluable resources for those in the field of emergency management. At the most basic level, websites and social media can provide the public with access to needed information for preparedness, response, and recovery, while social media allow emergency officials, first responders, relief and recovery operatives, and members of the public to share information in real time as disasters and emergencies unfold. Just as social media platforms and their uses have evolved at an exponential rate in recent years, so too have the means by which those in the emergency management field have utilized their evolving capacities.

The Internet has long been used in the Emergency Management field as a means of hosting information-based websites that provide the public with access to information about emergency preparedness. Government agencies and private relief organizations maintain websites information the public about various aspects of emergency preparedness, from how to prepare for an approaching hurricane to what to do in cases of accidental posing or sudden onset of an illness (County of Morris, N.J., 2014). It has only been for roughly the last decade that the advent and growth of social media has made it possible for the Internet to be used as platform for two-way communication between hosts and users, and for multiple channels of communication to exist between and among users. According to a 2012 report from about social media and its use in the field of Emergency Management, fully 94 percent of all Americans are Internet users, and roughly half of those are Facebook and Twitter users (Su, Wardell, & Torkildsen, 2014), 2012). Such numbers make it clear that those in the Emergency Management field are presented with both responsibilities and opportunities to use social media to heighten preparedness levels for emergencies and to foster communication during and after emergencies.

The abundance of social media platforms and the overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet makes it necessary to consider a myriad of ways that social media can be used for preparedness. Where earlier uses of the Internet for emergency preparedness were primarily limited to static websites that contained general, broad information, current technologies make it possible for social media to provide information that is constantly updated and is further targeted to the specific needs of individuals or groups of users. An example of such a targeted and real-time use are messages sent via social media from hospitals; such messages allow users to see how long wait times are at local emergency rooms or to learn how emergencies that are currently happening are affecting hospitals, police, and other responders (Merchant et al, 2011). In the event of an emergency, these same systems that routinely update the public can also be used by hospital officials and other operatives to determine what impact the emergency is having on local and regional services to better coordinate response efforts (Merchant et al, 2011). Such uses of social media highlight the dynamic nature of the platforms, and demonstrate how preparedness and response efforts can intersect when social media is implemented and effectively used.

As social media has fostered real-time connectivity among millions of users, the lines between emergency preparedness and emergency response have become increasingly blurred; so too have the lines between those who develop and maintaining emergency-response facilities and networks and the members of the public. In a very real sense, the connectivity of the public through social media serves as a viable and useful communication network for those in the field of Emergency Management. No longer must those in Emergency Management wait for television stations or radio stations to broadcast emergency alerts; in the event of an emergency, information about the nature of them emergency and the manner in which the public should respond can be disseminated almost instantaneously. With this in mind, those in the field of Emergency Management must look at the effective use of social media as a fundamental component of emergency-preparedness efforts (McKay, 2014).

Social Media Platforms and Their Use in Emergency Management

In a previous section some consideration was given to the general context of social media, as well as some of the primary and most popular social media platforms of the day. Underpinning these platforms, however, are technology and functionality frameworks that make it possible to build social media platforms. While it is beyond the scope of this paper to offer an in-depth examination and discussion of the technology on which social media is premised, it may be helpful to discuss some primary aspects of all social media to better understand how they can be useful in the context of emergency management. There are a number of fundamental characteristics and functions that are shared by social media, just as there are a number of fundamental technologies through which social media are accessed and used.

According to Velev and Slateva (2012), social media share some or all of the following characteristics:

• Encompasses wide variety of content formats including text, video, photographs, audio, PDF and PowerPoint. Many social media make use of these options by allowing more than one content alternative.
• Allows interactions to cross one or more platforms through social sharing, email and feeds.
• Involves different levels of engagement by participants who can create or comment or on social media networks.
• Facilitates enhanced speed and breadth of information dissemination.
• Provides for one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many communications.
• Enables communication to take place in real time or asynchronously over time.
• Is device indifferent? It can take place via a computer, tablets and smartphones.
• Extends engagement by creating real-time online events, extending online interactions offline, or augmenting live events online. Social media operates through social media websites implementing functions such as [4]:
• Social Bookmarking (Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Simpy) – Interact by tagging websites and searching through websites bookmarked by other people.
• Social News (Digg, Propeller, Reddit) – Interact by voting for articles and commenting on them.
• Social Networking (Facebook, Hi5) – Interact by adding friends, commenting on profiles, joining groups and having discussions.
• Social Photo and Video Sharing (YouTube, Flickr) – Interact by sharing photos or videos and commenting on user submissions.
• Wikis (Wikipedia) – Interact by adding articles and editing existing articles.

(From “Use of Social Media in Natural Disaster Management,” 2012)

The above list, while perhaps incomplete, drives home the point about the nature of social media. As fostered by the opportunities offered by the Internet, social media platforms offer users an experience that is fundamentally different from nearly all historical iterations of media. Priot to the advent of the Internet, the dissemination of information, whether through books or newspapers or television programs or radio stations, was largely unidirectional. The information presented in evening news programs, for example, was compiled by editors and delivered by broadcasters who passively absorbed the stream of information. In the Internet age individuals have a dizzying new array of sources of information; moreover, the unidirectional nature of media has been changed to one that is unidirectional. In the example of news services, for example, visitors to the websites of newspapers or cable news channels can often use the comments sections to discuss the news stories presented on these websites. These comments sections can become additional sources of news; for example, an individual at the site of an emergency or other newsworthy event may offer real-time information and updates to a news story that had been written and posted earlier by a journalist. To the extent that the news site is used in such a manner, it too meets the criteria of social media alongside more specific platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.

The technological platforms that support the use of social media have, in the last decade or so, become ubiquitous. Advances in cell phone technology have made current cell phones as powerful as full-sized computers of a generation ago, while the networks providence connectivity have grown to span the globe, promulgating the ability for people to reach each other from and to nearly every point on the globe. Along with this ability to communicate with each other, cell phone technology allows for the storage and transmission of vast amounts of information; music, photographs, video, even entire books can be easily stored and transported. The use of social media has had some obvious effects on contemporary culture, such as the use of social media by celebrities. Famous actors, musicians, and other celebrities often turn to social media to communicate with fans and other members of the public. This phenomenon is often seen in politics as well; politicians use social media for everything from encouraging voters to offer their support to delivering public mea culpas after being caught in the latest political scandal.

These and other uses of social media have, in many ways, had a democratizing effect on public discourse. The dissemination of news and information, for example, is no longer the sole purview of newspapers and television stations; anyone with a modicum of technical savvy and a functioning laptop computer can start a blog to discuss the events of the day, offer opinions about a local sports franchise, or critique the latest Hollywood blockbuster. The uses of social media are just beginning to emerge; despite their ubiquity, it must be remembered that the elder statesman of social media, Facebook, is a mere decade old. As transformative as social media has been for the daily lives of millions of Americans and billions of people around the globe, the “power of social media has yet to be unleashed” (White & White, 2012). The use of social media in the context of emergency management may prove to be one of the fundamental drivers of social media in the future, as the connectivity and ability to share information in real time is already reshaping the ways in which people and organizations plan for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and disasters.

It is not just the connectivity and communication fostered by social media that makes it so useful in the context of emergency management; what is most important is the nature and quality of the shared information. Through social media and other communication technologies, emergency managers can access information in real time that can help shape the nature of a response. Burstein et al (2011) consider the use of Decision Support Systems (DSS) in the context of emergency responses. The term “DSS” refers to a broad set of technology and software that is used to help streamline and enhance decision-making processes. DSS can, for example, be used to analyze an array of possible choices or options for how to respond to an emergency, and can offer emergency managers rapid and in-depth insight into the potential benefits or outfalls associated with each option.

The results gleaned from a DSS analysis can, of course, be directly transmitted between managers and responders where appropriate; in instances where the rapid dissemination of such results to the public is a priority, though, social media platforms offer an effective means by which this can be done. Moreover, DSS technology can also be used in the field, at the site of an emergency, further enhancing the rapidity and effectiveness by which answers can be found and decisions can be made. By combing the power of DSS and social media, the information needed for effective input can be swiftly accessed, while the ability to provide responders, victims, and others affected by the emergency can be vastly improved as compared to earlier, pre-Internet methods and tactics.

Social Media and Emergency Response

The use of social media in responding to emergencies is inherently dynamic and unpredictable; while officials and responders may use social media to disseminate information directly to the public, users of social media will also interact between and among each other in ways that can be helpful to responders. By serving as a real-time public communications network, social media users can share information directly from sites of disasters and emergencies, feeding that information back into the system so that other members of the public and emergency officials and responders can utilize it. In the example of the school shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007, students and school officials on the scene posted real-time updates to Facebook pages and shared sent text messages and pictures to each other as the situation unfolded (Merchant et al, 2011). Such uses of social media provide opportunities for officials, responders, law enforcement agents, and other actors to glean information about the circumstances of disasters and emergencies and shape responses accordingly.

This crowd-sourcing approach to information-gathering and dissemination is one of the fundamental and unique characteristics of social media, and is what makes social media so valuable to the field of Emergency Management. An earthquake in New Zealand in 2011 which caused significant devastation to homes and buildings also had the effect of destroying components of the region’s emergency-response infrastructure (Crowe, 2012). Members of the public who were on hand used cell phones and other technology to help coordinate the movement of responders and the dispersal of needed supplies and other resources (Crowe, 2012). By wielding the power and capabilities of social media, members of the public took an active role in the relief and recovery efforts after the earthquake. Such uses of social media highlight how the technology and the connectivity it fosters can underpin real-time response to emergencies that combine information and the efforts of officials, responders, and the public, into a an effective and dynamic response team.

It is not only social media platforms and the software on which they run that can be useful in the context of Emergency Management. The physical hardware of cell phones and other technology can be swiftly purposed for use during emergencies. Most modern cell phones contain GPS technology which makes it possible to use them in geolocation, a capacity that can be particularly useful during emergencies. Such geolocation technology can help responders who are engaged in efforts to find individuals during emergencies, and can also allow officials and coordinators to monitor the location of those involved in recovery and relief efforts. In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, survivors trapped under rubble sent messages to Facebook to let people know they were alive, and these messages helped officials coordinate and target their rescue and recovery efforts (Merchant et al, 2011). In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake a crowd-sourced web platform was developed by members of the public in coordination with officials and volunteer responders; this platform, called Ushahidi, allowed relief efforts to be coordinated in real-time as such efforts were needed.

A case study of the earthquake revealed the critical role that social media played in the early response and recovery efforts, and has continued to play as the long-term recovery has continued. Yates and Paquette (2011) provide an in-depth examination of how social media was used by nearly all the actors involved in the response and recovery processes, from the governmental agencies and NGOs that coordinated and carried out the official responses to the victims of the earthquake whose very survival often rested on access to and the use of social media. This case study also highlights the significance of Knowledge Management (KM) and DSS technologies; social media helped to provide the communication and connectivity between those affected by the earthquake and those directing the recovery, while KM and DSS helped to acquire and process the vast amounts of information involved in effectively carrying out the response and recovery.

According to the authors of this case study, the response to the Haiti earthquake was the first time that “U.S. government agencies employed social media technologies such as wikis and collaborative workspaces as the main knowledge sharing mechanisms” (Yates & Paquette, 2011). The authors note that KM systems are not “optically configured to support” emergency management and response (Yates & Paquette, 2011), pointing to the often static nature of typical KM systems and the unique, individual, and constantly-shifting sets of information related to emergencies and disasters. A KM system might be effective when known quantities are examined and considered, but emergencies are, by their nature, drivers of unknown quantities. It is for exactly this reason, then that social media is so helpful in the context of emergency management, as it helps to acquire, deliver, and disseminate information on a previously unheard-of scale.

While cell phones and platforms such as Facebook or Twitter may seem like the most obvious and effective means by which emergency managers can harness the power of social media, there are other platforms that can be particularly and uniquely effective when dealing with emergencies and disasters. The Ushahidi platform is a wiki-based socials media tool that has been a critical component of the relief and recovery effort in Haiti. Wikis are collaborative; they serve as host sites for information, but can also be edited or added to by anyone with access to the site. This has been particularly useful in Haiti, as it has allowed emergency managers to disseminate information to victims while also acquiring information from them, and has also fostered direct communication between and among victims, responders, and others affected by the disaster. The Ushahidi platform is able to host text, static images, video, and other information, allowing users to share complete and effective information (Yates & Paquette, 2011).

The case study of the Haiti earthquake was conducted over the course of several months, and published the year after the earthquake. In that short span, however, the researchers were able to chart what they describe as an “evolution” of the use of social media in that context (Yates & Paquette, 2011). The earliest responders and the earthquake victims made immediate use of cell phones to share messages via local social media platforms, though such uses were limited by damaged communication networks, short supplies of cell phones, and other factors (Yates & Paquette). As the response and recovery efforts continued, however, cell phones were distributed to victims, and platforms such as Ushahidi and other earthquake-specific social media platforms were established.

The organizations and agencies involved in the recovery, such as the U.S. government, the United Nations, and the Red Cross, each established platforms that were linked with the other platforms. As the connectivity of the social media platforms became more well-established, they began to function as critical components of the recovery effort, allowing healthcare providers to deliver medicine where it was needed, allowing victims to find food, and assisting with the provision of shelter and clothes to those who had been displaced (Merchant et al, 2011). By the conclusion of the study, the social media connectivity had become the “backbone” of the relief effort (Yates & Paquette). These and other examples demonstrate how important social media has become in the field of emergency management, and also highlights why it has become so important: the adaptive, responsive nature of social media is ideally suited for handling the information-sharing and communication which are critical to effective emergency management.

The Future of Social Media in Emergency Management

Just as it is clear that social media will continue to play a crucial role in emergency management, it is also clear that there are hurdles that must be surmounted. As helpful and useful as social media has been, it does have some shortcomings and limitations, at least in the early stages of its evolution as the “backbone” of emergency management. The benefits of social media, especially in the context of DSS and KM, can also be a hindrance. As Burstein et al (2011) point out, in any computational process it is necessary to weed out useful, good information from bad information that is not useful. Social media has the potential to provide “information overload” (Burstein et al, 2011), which can make it difficult to determine which information to keep and use, and which to ignore and discard. While Facebook, for example, might serve as a helpful repository of real-time reports and shared information during a crisis, there is never any guarantee of the veracity of that information.

At the same time, however, there are some iterations of social media that are specifically designed to organically respond to and eliminate bad information. The wiki format, for example, is purposefully collaborative. Anyone with access to the wiki can post, remove, or edit information to and from it. At first glance this might appear to be a flaw; if practically anyone can post on the wiki, how can users trust the information contained on it? The answer to that question lies not with the fact that users can post information to the wiki, but that they can also remove information from it. If one user posts false or incorrect information on the wiki, any other user or users seeing that false information can correct it or remove it. As the number of users of the wiki grows, this inherent corrective power grows as well.

This so-called “crowdsourced” information is likely to grow in importance to emergency managers in the coming decades, as social media platforms become ever more widespread and easy to use. In the context of KM and emergency management, this crowdsourced information has been give the label “volunteered graphic information” (VGI) and its use and mastery will be critical to successfully wielding the power of DSS and KM in concert with emergency management (Geospatial Today, 2011). Despite the inherent and potential shortcomings of VGI, there is no question that it will continue to grow in importance and relevance; the only questions are related to how and how well it will be used. As public and private organizations continue to make social media an integral component of their organizational functions, the quality of information as well as the ease with which such information can be disseminated will continue to improve (Walaski, 2013).

The use of social media by the U.S. government in response to the Haiti earthquake may have been relatively recent, but in the few years since then it has integrated the idea at all levels of its emergency management agencies and operations. At the National Disaster Preparedness Center at the University of Hawaii, FEMA offers courses and seminars on “Social Media for National Disaster Response and Recovery” (flghc.org, 2013). Among the attributes and objectives of social media described in this course are the ability to “get message out faster” and to “reach more people through another communication channel” (flghc.org, 2013). The FEMA course also highlights the ways in which different social media platforms overlap, noting that no single platform will be sufficient for the purposes of sharing information, but by using multiple platforms, the combined effect of the message with the crowdsourcing effect will help to spread information farther and faster than ever before possible.

At its core, what social media can do for emergency management is to make all the users of social media integral components of the emergency management process. This does not mean that emergency managers can necessarily bend the technology or the platforms entirely to their will; it is helpful to recall the “evolution” of social media uses in Haiti after the earthquake. The technology and the platforms were made available, but it was up to the users to determine how they would be used, and how well they would be used. To the degree that social media has been helpful to the victims of the Haiti earthquake, it is as much a result of how it was adapted to the circumstances. Other examples of how social media will continue to shape emergency management can be seen when witnesses to a disaster or an emergency are the first to post pictures or written accounts on the Internet, even before first responders or members of the traditional media have arrived (National Research Council, 2011).. This phenomenon, when properly harnessed, will assuredly serve as a primary driver of information during emergencies.

Social media has applications and uses across the entire spectrum of activities related to emergency management. Health departments and other agencies can use social media to warn the public about an outbreak of disease or provide information about diet and exercise and members of the public can report illnesses or find the nearest doctor to treat them. Police departments can issue warnings when a criminal is on the loose, and members of the public can alert police and each other when the criminal is spotted. Local governments can issue traffic alerts or weather warnings while social media users can warn each other about recent car accidents or approaching storms. Most significantly, these avenues of communication and the dissemination of information can happen instantaneously, reaching hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. Even in these basic examples, the two-way communication and collaboration that are fostered are inherent features that make social media so useful now.

The uses of social media in the context of the Emergency Management field will continue to grow and evolve as technology and its uses become more firmly entrenched in everyday life. In just a few short years social media has become ubiquitous, reshaping the ways that people communicate and share information. As more and more of the power of technology moves into the hands of individuals users,. The connectivity and communication networks of earlier generations will become obsolete, and with them manyof the ways that the Emergency Management field has historically operated. Government officials, emergency responders, members of the public, and all other stakeholders must continue to adapt to the technological revolution and evolution that has reshaped all of our lives. Users of social media have pushed the boundaries of their capacities, leading to breakthroughs in how they can be used in all aspects of life. Simply put, the advent of social media has promulgated an entirely new communications infrastructure, one in which the old guidelines about how information was disseminated have been washed away and replaced with an entirely new paradigm. Those in the field of Emergency Management have a responsibility to understand how social media can continue to be used in new and more effective ways, and also have endless opportunities to make all those  involved with and active on social media an integral component of this dynamic, evolving field.

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