Article Analysis: 'Understanding The Power of Social Media as a Communication Tool in the Aftermath of Disasters' by Craig Fugate

Compounding Brown's challenge was a media feedback loop. The main stream media was accessing and broadcasting images and stories posted by residents of the disaster stricken areas. “Hurricane Katrina groups contain photos of the impending and ensuing storm.” (Liu S. et. al. 2008) “For Hurricane Katrina, we begin to see the start of some formalization around the role that Flickr groups might be able to serve in disaster.”(Liu S.

I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, and Pinterest. Although all of the platforms listed have various purposes, they help to cure my boredom and keep me in touch with the world. On most accounts, my social media is a diary that I leave open to the world. Using social media for business and communications is a very useful and innovative resource. When handled by the right people it helps the greater good. For example, the news can now reach more people at faster rates than it could traditionally. You can talk to your relatives face to face over Skype. Social media helps people find jobs by assisting in making connections to others. It is a useful tool, but in most cases, it has fallen into the wrong hands in such a way that news is no longer true "news". It has become a race to popularity in the form of likes and retweets rather than driving interest on real

Shari Veil additionally in her article states, “social media websites attract millions of users, many of whom integrate the sites into their daily lives and business practices…social media allows users to connect with peers by adding them to networks of friends, which facilitates communication, particularly among peer

Appropriate technology, such as social media, affecting communication during the crisis situation and how these technologies may be used to enhance communication

Social media has exploded in American culture because it makes our lives easier and the world a better place. Hard to imagine there was no Facebook or Twitter just 12 years ago. Sure there’s some negatives associated with it, but overall social media has so many benefits. In fact, here’s seven reasons why we think social media rocks!

One way that social media has helped people is it has worked as an emergency call system similar to 9-1-1. How this system worked was people would tweet out they were in trouble, or need assistance and twitter accounts such as @harveyresucue, during hurricane Harvey, would take the data and compile databases of addresses and names of folks in critical need throughout the storm. Then it would find and attempt to send them help. In the article “Please send help” by Maya Rhodan, Rhodan writes, “‘I have 2 children with me and the [sic] water is swallowing us up. Please send help,’ a woman named Maritza Ritz Willis tweeted early Sunday morning. As 911 dispatchers were not responding, she decided to share her address with her 463 followers and posted a call for help on Facebook. A little over an hour later, she tweeted ‘Got picked up by the fire rescue,’ Ritz Willis shared.” (Rhodan 1) In this article, it shows the effect that social media has already had in times of

It’s the one thing people feel like they can’t live without, social media. Social media connects us to millions of people so we can share pictures, videos, or just simple messages to each other. You must give appreciation towards prior inventions like the computer, cellphone, and television because they were what gave birth to social media. Social media has continued to grow in the past decade and people and organizations must adapt to this new trend of communication to stay informed. One thing that must adapt to social media is emergency situations. In an emergency, communication is key for the responders working the scene and the bystanders. When it comes to an emergency, typically there is a structured

Another aspect that needed closer attention after the attack was the channel of communication when the disaster happened. There needed to be a reliable channel that wouldn’t be affected by the failure of the corporate system. Over the years, social media usage as a communication channel has come in handy. It has been used to create a strong collaboration between corporate to client and corporate to corporate for communication purposes. Various corporations can communicate the progress of the data recovery efforts to both their workers and clients. For example most clients would get depressed by failure of a system that manages their data, hence, an assurance of data safety would calm their anxiety in the wake of the disaster. Facebook, Twitter and Linked In are the widely used social media channels for communication because of their robustness, ubiquity and they are free to use.

Reliable and accessible communication and information technology is irreplaceable tools of communications to the community (The associated Press and NORC,2013). The importance of social, medical presence became evident during the time of Super storm, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were all utilized during the disaster to communicate with victims, families, responders and share the ever changing events. Social media presence encourages community involvement, with the accessibility, recently updated status, and current developing actions. For example, the New York of Emergency Management provided hourly updates and evacuation orders via twitter and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie relayed updates about the storm and aid and evacuation orders via his personal twitter

Social media has, and will continue to, change the world in many ways. Thankfully, it has improved that emergency response systems and how the government reacts to some disaster events. While some social media outlets and reports can seem meaningless and inappropriate, the vast majority provide information that appeals to an audience and provides valuable information before, during and after an

People can use social media as a positive source to stay connected with different types of information. First, social news media can alert people when bad weather is approaching and to keep people informed as to what’s going on around the world. For example, when hurricane Matthew was coming people were informed ahead a time to be prepared for the bad weather that was approaching. People, including myself were able to stay on alert by the news channel and know ahead of time to what was coming. Watching the news can be a positive thing to know what’s going on in a person’s town or community. People are always able to stay inform of everything that was going on with hurricane Matthew and stay connected with all the new development. Second, another

One media outlet that cannot be ignored is social media. We must take advantage of distributing emergency plans and operations through this resource. In a mass evacuation situation social media through mobile devices will likely be the sole link for citizens to the emergency planners and services. We also have to ensure our Public Affairs department actively monitors, and updates the local media during the disaster operation. If the media doesn’t get what they are looking for from us, rest assured, they will get it from someone without our best interests in mind. According to (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2011), “regular monitoring will identify rumors and misinformation and speed corrections” (pg.

In order to manage a disaster after it happened, you must know where the disaster is and who needs your help. It’s all about the people, whether it’s getting to them or making sure they are safe for the time being. Social media can help provide this information.

As Alexander (2013) highlights, social media provides a voice to people who do not normally have one due to the wide community of users. Lindsay (2011) stresses that while present emergency communication systems are mostly centralized through one-way communication from the organisation to the public, social media can possibly change emergency communication as information can flow in many directions. During the Haiti earthquake, Keim and Noji (2011) find out that users in Haiti reported the earthquake live, including information and images on areas affected.

In a new form of protection and communication, social media is the main thing that everything is using in today’s times. Marketing employees have positions as titled as social media directors. Companies have people watching and monitoring everything that happens with their social media reputation all hours of the day everyday. Young people are seeing the power of social media everyday with teachers demonstrating how fast a picture can be shared across the world. Social media is relatively new and could possibly open many gates for communication. This depends heavily on who is publishing information and news on social media. If news spreads fast on social media, then the use of it can be used for emergencies. If many people are