RESCUEUnderstanding and improving social media

usage in crises

Harald Hornmoen and Steen Steensen

3 DECEMBER, 2014

RESCUE

REsearching

Social Media and

Collaborative Software

Use in

Emergency Situations

3 DECEMBER, 2014

Research question:

– How do key communicators use, evaluate and react to social media

messages in emergencies, and how can their use of social media be

improved to optimize their awareness of - and response to - the situation?

3 DECEMBER, 2014

Objectives

– 1. To develop criteria and models for optimal and appropriate emergency

communication tuned to the specificities of the emergency events chosen.

– 2. Through three case studies analyze how key crises communicators and

members of the public have used social media in the crises.

– 3. To understand the impact social media use may have on key emergency

communicators and the public's awareness of the situation.

– 4. To analyse the case study findings to identify strengths and weaknesses in

usage patterns and assessment methods.

– 5. To develop tools and methods to evaluate social media information in order

to adapt emergency communication and management to situations in which

the premises and flow of information is increasingly determined by social

media.

3 DECEMBER, 2014

Three case studies

– The RESCUE project will develop new knowledge based models of

emergency communication by studying social media use in three different

emergency cases:

– 1. The terrorist attacks in Norway in 2011;

– 2. An environmental disaster, the flooding in May and June 2013 in central

Europe, and

– 3. The pandemic influenza popularly known as the swine flu, particularly

during what was defined as its "critical phases" in 2009

3 DECEMBER, 2014

The more prescriptive goal

To enable improved social media interaction in emergencies and use of social

media tools in emergency communication. Arrangements for such improved

usage will be established…

1. On the basis of knowledge of social media use in emergencies generated

through the empirical research in the case studies.

2. By including an SME partner with special qualifications and an outstanding

record of software development and of building social websites and

services.

3. Through close dialogues with end users

3 DECEMBER, 2014

The work packages:

– WP 1: Development of criteria and models for optimal crisis

communication

– WP 2: Case study: The terrorist attacks in Norway 2011

– WP 3: Case Study: The flooding in May and June 2013 in central Europe

– WP 4: Case Study: Social media, “swine flu”, ebola, and pandemic flu

preparedness

– WP 5: Case Study: Psychophysiological reactions to using social media

in emergencies

– WP 6: Development of tools for social media evaluation and emergency

management

3 DECEMBER, 2014

RESCUE WP 2– The terrorist attack in Norway 22 July 2011 in social media

3 DECEMBER, 2014

The role of social media 22. July

– The news about the Utøya attack

broke on Twitter

– Three phases during the first 24

hours:

– Information sharing

– Emergency preparedness

– Expressing grief (#oslove)

3 DECEMBER, 2014

The aim of RESCUE WP 2

The study investigates how the youth at Utøya during the attacks

responded to the terrorist emergency by using social media, and how

journalists and information officers evaluated and used social media

information in their communication efforts.

– To what extent did the use of social media in the situation enhance the

affected youngsters’ situational awareness?

– How and how well was their messaging evaluated and used by

emergency communication authorities and journalists?

3 DECEMBER, 2014

The methods of RESCUE WP 2

– Qualitative interviews with:

– Camp participants

– Journalists / rescue workers / information officers

– Qualitative and quantitative analysis of social media content

– 2,2 million tweets from Norway 20 July to 28 August 2011

– Facebook content from camp participants

– Analysis of news items (information flow)

3 DECEMBER, 2014

What we can do with the Twitter dataset

– Analyse how information flowed: Which messages got retweeted,

favorited, etc

– Algorithmic text analysis of sentiments / modes of communication

related to phases in time (information and fact sharing (descriptive),

various emotional reactions (expressive), emergency preparedness

(instructional), handling grief)

– Analyse interactions

– Look for common factors among those who provided important and

correct information fast

– Use the Twitter data to find interview subjects (among survivors,

journalists, police, rescue workers, etc)

3 DECEMBER, 2014

An objective of work package 1

– Develop criteria for appropriate crisis communication involving social media

Input to formulating such criteria is acquired through:

Focused group interview conducted with communicators who have

played/are expected to play an important role in crises/emergencies

3 DECEMBER, 2014

Some of the members of our advisory board

– - Nick Phin, Head of department for respiratory diseases in England and

within public health England.

– - Kristina Brekke Jørgensen is Web Editor of Kriseinfo.no (a crisis net

portal), and Senior Adviser at the Directorate of Civil Protection and

Emergency Planning (DSB), in Norway.

– - Thomas Meier, Head of public relations at the state fire brigade in Styria,

Austria

– - Werner Müllner is Deputy Editor in Chief of the Austrian Press Agency, the

national news bureau of Austria.

– - Ingeborg Volan. Special advisor on social media, Norwegian Broadcasting

Cooperation (NRK), Norway.

– - Hildegunn Fallang is a journalist who survived the Utøya terrorist attack in

Norway.

3 DECEMBER, 2014

Optimal risk/crises

communication

Optimal crisis communication

using social media

Deficiencies in

current use of social media in

crisis

How to improve use social

media in crises

How do you

Filter and validate social media

messages in crises

Health governance perspective Information must be correct, up

to date, understandable,

trustworthy.

Engagement must be maintained.

Blogs are more valued by health

professionals than Twitter in

crisis communication. They give

you more room to make your

point.

Twitter messages do not give

authorities enough space to

make their point. We do not

listen enough, so we are

probably not picking up concerns

at an early point.

It would be enormously helpful if

there are tools that could help us

with social analysis of the inputs

we’re getting, or ways that we

could actually channel it.

His department has to start

listening, filtering and validating.

Perspective of web editor of

authorities’ crisis info To give people the best possible

information, understandable and

precise. Authorities’ information

must be coordinated and

complementary.

Communication should be based on

listening to people’s concerns.

Authorities should use social media

to get an understanding of people’s

reactions and emotions. Using

social media can also improve

authorities ability to communicate

crises.

There is a lack of understanding

of the importance of social media

among the authorities. There are

not enough people dealing with

social media in our crises

information.

Rather than more tools, the crisis

portal needs more people who

know how to deal with social media.

Those who decide on priorities do

not see why we should listen to

what people are posting on social

media and why this will help them

deal with a crisis.

State fire brigade perspective Rescue organizations have a

subordinate role in the official

crisis communication.

Makes possible a dialogue with -

and a fast and widely spread

information for - the public.

Swiftly spread information can

lead to a hypersensitive situation

in the public, wrong interpretation

of information and wrong

behavior.

By activating the “self-help

strengths” of the people and by

supporting all forces with fast

information.

This not a really relevant problem

for the fire brigades.

Social media advisor’s

perspective,

Major national broadcaster

Information must be trustworthy,

verified, fast, based on multiple

sources. Different editorial staffs’

information must be coordinated.

Media organizations with a major

presence in social media, are

important in emergencies, when

they provide information that builds

on competencies acquired through

training in non-crisis periods.

There is a lack of competence in the

organization when it comes to

verifying use-generated content.

We need better routines internally

and better training of journalists to

new journalistic processes.

We need journalists who

understand the dialogue part of

social media, who utilize it and who

asks exactly those questions you

would ask to the sources on the

phone.

Today we are fact-checking things

manually, you can actually

automate some of that. What we

lack are internal routines to handle

social media tools.

Editor of national news bureau’s

perspective Communication must be based

on reliable information, it must be

correct, fast, continuous and

verifiable.

If social media are your only source

of information in a crisis situation

you may have to use them. But

journalists must then signalize that

this is just rumours.

Social media make up an emotional

network with opinions, guessing an

no re-checking of facts. One cannot

verify information that is posted on

Twitter.

A “social media crisis network of

trusted partners” could give a

journalist a possibility to know with

whom one communicates in the

first urgent period of a crisis.

We are welcoming everything that

could help us filter the trustworthy

sources from the less reliable ones.

Nobody has this tool yet.

Crisis victim/

journalist

perspective

Journalists should be prudent when

they are in contact with victims of

violence.

Social media can function as a

channel for alleviating people´s

pain and sorrow.

Implies that ethical guidelines of

social media usage in crises are not

well developed yet.

Agrees that the ethical aspects of

social media usage in crisis

situations could be developed

further.

Falang gives no comment to this

question.