Using Social Media for Disaster Releif?
Here is a video of a Australian News group reporting about people turning to social media for help during disasters.
In the article The Effects of Social Media on The Disaster Relief Effort Fallowing The March 11 Earthquake in Japan, it was said that 70% of the earthquakes responder’s used Twitter, 38% used Facebook and 16% used Youtube. A research done by Beat Communication (the largest social networking packages in Japan) on communication before and after the earthquake noted that; people used a social network to compensate for the lack of information in television and newspaper. The people of Japan used social media to get information from foreign media due to the lack of media they were receiving from local news. They also, and probably most importantly, used social networks to ensure the safety of friends and families. Graphs show that Twitter was the most widely used network after the earthquake, in fact there was an increase in the use of Twitter after the earthquake from 56% to 71%. After reading this article it seem pretty evident that there is a use for social media. I think social media, like Twitter, can be very useful during disaster situations. But after reading Twitter for Crises Communication: Lessons learned From Japan’s Tsunami Disaster, I’m not sure that I’m sold on the fact that humanitarian organizations or responders should rely on information feeding from Twitter or other social media networks. The article said Twitter had been recently used to share information like; the shooting of police officers, rivers flooding, and wild grass fires. These types of situations are reliable and useful information that could be used to warn people. There are also situations where people are Tweeting false information, and this is why I’m not sure organizations or responders should rely on Twitter during disaster response efforts.
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| A graph of Tweets during an earthquake in SF |
In a study done by a Chinese microblogging site Sina-Weibo after the 2010 Yushu earthquake, it classified the tweets into five different groups; (1) opinion related, (2) emotion-related, (3) action-related, (4) general earthquake related, (5) situation related. The action-related, general-earthquake related, and situation related can be useful, but if organizations and responders base their decisions or reactions off of people’s opinions and emotions, then the organizations and responders might run into trouble. Like we have talked about in class numerous of times, people might not be so truthful about Tweeting for help if their emotions are involved. People could Tweet about one of their family members is trapped under some ruble, even though they aren’t 100 percent sure there actually is a family member trapped. So, if a responder goes to help this person crying out for help, only to find out a family member wasn’t trapped under the ruble, then they have wasted valuable time that could have been used to help someone else. The article also mentions that one of their biggest concerns about relying on Twitter was that people Tweet false information and it’s had to verify information.
So, do I think social media networks like Twitter should be used by responders during disasters? To an extent they should, but they should NOT rely on the information. I do think social media networks are good for Tweeting information to warn people. Like in the case of the Virginia Tech shootings, a huge percent of the students said they were notified about a shooter on the campus and were able to evacuate in time because of cell phones. Also, people of Japan used social media to update themselves on information after the earthquake of Japan. So, I think social media could be used in situations like these to save lives, but I don’t truly believe they should be relied on by disaster response organizations because people could be tweeting false information. 
I agree with you that twitter, facebook, and SMS should be used in disaster response and also the fact that we should not be one hundred percent reliant on it. Especially with twitter, it is a great tool for people whether they are survivors or disaster responders to use for certain information such as finding what roads are closed or flooded, what buildings need help, were family or friends might be, who needs help or supplies, or even information about the disaster itself. It’s a great took that I believe we are getting better at using and people are growing to be more reluctant to use it as well. However, there is a down side to it. Because it is accessible by anyone, anyone can type in information whether it be true or not. So this leads to a problem. Should disaster responders trust it? I believe that we should. Just because the information is not confirmed and verified, emergency responders sometimes only have split seconds to make decisions that lead to actions. We need to have some faith in the time of a crisis that people are inherently good. If the information that is posted on twitter is not a matter of life or death I believe that we should have people there to verify the information that is received. Yes, this leads to more issues such as getting translators but I believe that it is necessary. However, on the other side of the spectrum like you said, if someone lies and said that a family member is trapped under the debris and rescue people come and find no one then they have wasted their time when they could be saving someone that actually is trapped under the debris. So we are going down a slippery slope that I am not sure we can ever get a definite solution too. Its all judgment calls.
ReplyDeleteWell-written and informative post, the YouTube video was also interesting. As you mentioned, social media is being used when other forms of communication such as television reports and are lacking. The fact that it is reliable is one particular reason why we need to figure out how to effectively implement it into disaster response systems. Also, the quantity of people gaining access to social media services is increasing. I believe that research focused on the use of social media should be aimed at two specific areas. One, research should focus determining the most effective ways in which critical information can be communicated easily and effectively to relevant populations. In other words, those responsible for collecting and disseminating information during a disaster should understand how to selectively, mass communicate through the use of social media. Second, research also needs to be geared towards understanding how we responders can effectively implement social media into their response efforts. The quantity of people calling for help in messages posted on sites like Twitter, during and after a disaster, simply cannot be ignored. However, using social media sites in this manner has obviously proved no easy task. And, I do not see things changing in terms of responders being able to respond to specific situations in the near future. Instead, it would be much more realistic for responders to use calls for help on websites like Twitter in order to get an idea of where the majority of victims are located. Social media should be used to understand how populations are effected. This is would probably allow responders to help the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time.
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