RESEARCH PAPER
CMM 5165: MEDIA AND SOCIETY IN A GLOBALISED WORLD
Research Question:
How does Social Media help when spreading awareness of Natural Disasters or Calamities?
Name: Nakita Fernandes Student ID: 10376434 Word Count: 2544
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Body
4. Conclusion
5. Acknowledgements
Abstract:
Since the mid-1990’s, new technologies have been developed with a new Internet platform termed social media that allows people to interact with each other and share details of different events. Social media includes blogs, chat-rooms, You-Tube channels, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and many more. Computers, smart phones, I-pad’s, etc. can assess
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Social Media is used to provide information about a particular disaster and in turn receive feedback, messages, comments and posts from users. The use of social media as an emergency weapon for communication is increasing and readily available to post emergency information in turn receiving assistance requests from affected people, using images uploaded to estimate the damage caused and how to come to aid with these conditions.
But is social media actually capable of helping those affected in disasters through the Internet forum?
The use of social media during natural calamities at all levels- local or international has successfully widened and expressed interest concerning how social media very soon will be used to come in terms with recovery of affected regions and cultural monuments because of disaster.
Taking the recent natural disaster, an earthquake with massive magnitude that affected Nepal as an example- we examine the benefits of using social media as a platform with its implication in context to natural disasters.
Introduction:
The use of social media is not restricted by geographical boundaries; it is used to interact with anyone in the world who is sharing the same media application (Boyd and Ellison, 2008).
“Social media makes the community part of the actual crisis communication response. For example…Twitter was used to quickly share initial information and updates during the 2007 and 2008 California wildfires, 2008 Mumbai massacre, 2009 crash of US Airways Flight 1549, 2010 Haiti earthquake, and 2011 Tunisian uprising.” This information, again in Veil’s 2011 article, reinforces the idea of how social media communication is highly beneficial and furthers an individual’s ability to remain informed on current events.
Appropriate technology, such as social media, affecting communication during the crisis situation and how these technologies may be used to enhance communication
Websites, twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., are examples of social media to be used to disseminate information to the general public. Implementation of a reverse 911 system provided notification of to specific neighborhood areas. Personal visits, town meetings and fliers provide a personal touch when communicating, especially with a neighborhood or the public. The final form of media is news conferences or (need to consider the current form of communication).
The co-ordinated terrorist attacks induced fear in civilians within the zone of the attacks, many people were wounded and looking for shelter. However, through the use of the social networking website twitter, users began hash tagging ‘#PorteOuverte’ which translates to ‘door open’. Facebook also placed a ‘safety check’ on the website so that people who lived in france would be able to mark themselves as safe. Many users who used the hashtag #PorteOuverte were using the medium to speak out to people near the attacks and even posted their address in order for people to come for shelter. This shows that through social media, communication has increased and arguably improved social solidarity. However, this hashtag was also being used by people who were not living in Paris, offering their homes but by people who were touched by the kind acts shown among Parisians. This caused a difficulty as the hashtag began trending worldwide and would have caused more confusion, which illustrates that the modern medium of communication has faults which could have cost people their
In lieu of recent natural disasters like hurricanes Harvey, Jose, and Irma, people have been using social media as a way of a relief effort. Social media had been used as many things, but no one had really used it to provide relief efforts for natural disasters. This really started happening in 2017. People have started to use social media to help people that have been affected by the natural disaster. In today's society, social media and its effect on aiding people in natural disasters is overall a positive thing.
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.
Through the use of SMS text and social media, information stays where it is needed in the community. Haiti’s earthquake proved the importance of mobile devices and information staying in the community. People used mobile devices to find love ones, let aid workers know where they were buried, and shared important data about happenings in Port-au-Prince and the country. Outside volunteers provided a much needed service
The Haiti earthquake of 2010 challenged the way the international humanitarian community had been collecting data for and during an emergency crisis. After any large-scale disaster, there is always a period of chaos where NGOs are trying to gather and analyze as much critical information as possible that would be required to establish the essential needs of the affected persons most efficiently, this comes as a result of humanitarian organizations failure to develop adequate preparedness for disaster. The Haiti quake illustrated, for the first time, the use of technologies such as social media and mobile phones by the affected community to issue pleas of help and indicate their requirement needs. Volunteers from around the world responded
In less than two decades, social media has revolutionized modern communication and information sharing. What began as a simple form of social networking has turned into innumerable platforms for people around the globe to share ideas, create and share businesses, promote brands, read news from various sources, as well as share and find vast amounts of information, among many other uses. Thus, with a few clicks of a button, people are now able to interact with someone on the other side of the world. The capabilities created through social media’s many uses have forever changed global politics, business, and interpersonal communication.
In the world we live in today, people have the opportunity to interact with one another due to the advancement in technology. For many years people relied on the traditional ways of communications, for example pay phones, send letters, a house phone, in person and they even used web cam’s. Presently, people rely on modern day methods of communication such as sending text messages, emails or even messaging via social. The development of the internet has made it so much easier for people to communicate that Social Media has become the place where people interact more than ever in a mere second.
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
Social Media is an important communication tool via a series of Websites and Applications used by millions of people which facilitates the creation and the sharing of content and information, which allows people to develop contacts and relationships to connect with each other efficiently through modern technology such as computers and mobile phones to fulfil people’s social needs. The “Social,” in Social Media refers to interacting with other people through sharing and receiving information and the “Media,” refers to the instrument of communication e.g. phone. Social Media is important since it has connected millions of people and Social Media is one of the dominant ways we communicate with each other. As of 2017 over 2.8 billion people use Social Media worldwide. It is hard to remember communication prior to the emergence of social media.
Social media is any website that allows social interaction. Social media is growing rapidly throughout the world. More adults and teenagers are joining sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to interact with friends, family, and strangers. The introduction of social media has changed the world in many ways. It affects each individual in different ways. Today it can be used as a very helpful tool in changing a person’s life, but at the same time cause such conflicts which can negatively impact a person. While there are some negatives associated with social media, the positives in communication all around, has made the world stronger and a better place to live in.
The world has never before been connected as much as it is today. One’s ability to communicate through various mediums is rapidly advancing, and this is much thanks to social media.