Social Media in Crisis and Risk Communication

Cardones. Alcantara. Jubilado. Ponce.4CA4

Crisis Communication•Are those messages delivered when the

ciris is about to occur or is already occurring. The messagers are almost entirely one way – from organization to audience – and are designed to help the audience act in ways that provide their immediate safety or longer-term welfare (Walaski, 2011)

Stages of Crisis Communication•According to Fink (1986) there are 4 stages to

a crisis lifecycle: •1.) the prodromal stage – where the clues or

hints that potential for a crisis begin to emerge. •2.) Crisis breakout or acute stages – features a

triggering event with attendant damage. •3.) Chronic Stage – effects of a crisis linger as

efforts to clean up the crisis progress•4.) Resolution – clear signal that the crisis is

over.

Risk VS CrisisRisk Communication Crisis Communication-Event which is the focus of the communications is in the future. - Ongoing process between communicator and audience is time-consuming.-Most communications are two-way events. -Goal is to reach consensus with audience regarding activities and solutions.

-Event that is the focus of the communications is about to occur or is already occurring. -Shorter process between organization and audience due to the immediacy of the crisis event. -Focus of the efforts is the delivery of messages to the audience. - Goal is to inform and compel the audience to action, intended to keep them safe.

(Walaski 2013)

Role of Social Media in Crisis and Risk Communication•Social Media – (in the context of crisis

communication) is an avenue organizations must take to obtain trust. It provides a platform for the organizations to build the much-needed credibility, as they are inherently conversational and transparent.

Continuation•Social media facilitate the flow of real-

time information to all parties concerned, be they citizens, employees, or media. It also innately prompts conversation, feedback, knowledge, insight and experience sharing from the people who care the most about the crisis.

• (Laad and Lewis 2012)

What can Social Media do? (Roles) • It allows messages to reach a global scale in a

split second and hence enables mobilization of resources across the world.

• Can be effectively used to mitigate the impact and/or response to a crisis by broadcasts on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. They also can be used to send guidelines and information in the Acute/Chronic Crisis Stages or the Response and Recovery Stages.

• Excellent platform to create partnerships for sharing best practices, methods and messages for crises.

• Fills the vacuum of informing the public and persuade them to take necessary steps to improve theirs safety. (Laad & Lewis, 2012)

Continuation• Changing the Crisis Communication Landscape – it is

no longer confined by space and time. More people are participating in disaster response because this technology has erased the temporal and geographic barriers.

• Stakeholder “Sensemaking” – (making sense of what is around us)

• Aiding in Crisis Communication – help provide and distribute information as well as create visuals to help organize relevant information.

• (Holmes, 2011)

Disadvantages•Source of Misinformation •Crisis Trigger

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication•1.) Establish risk and crisis management

policies and process approaches that work with community members to effectively participate in decision-making systems – using media to educate the public regarding risks encourage visible support of an organization or cause and establish a visible a venue for open dialogue online are all approaches to incorporating social media in risk and crisis communication.

•2.) Plan pre-event logistics developed in partnership with stakeholders in an attempt to mitigate severe outcomes –

•This platform allows us to access, edit and contribute to content on a web site or document. Allows monitoring of the environment in search for warning signs.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication

•3.) Partner with the Publics – •Creating and sustaining relationships.

Social media can provide access to a mass of individuals who are directly involved in the incident’s and have a clearer geographic visualization of the extent of the emergency.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication

•4.) Listen to the public’s concern and understand the audience – provides a variety of ways for organizations to engage directly with the audience, the outlets are well suited for monitoring and responding to rumours.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication

•5.) Communicate with honesty, candour and openness while acknowledging risk.

• - by proving that they are not trying to hide anything, an organization can build trust.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication

•6.) Collaborate and coordinate with credible sources

•- most communication practitioners who respond in an examination of how social media are being implemented still think social media have a long distance to go before equalling traditional media in terms of truthfulness and transparency.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication

•7.) Meet the needs of the media and remain accessible –

•The constant updating and uploading of multimedia information to a web site can be cumberstone and requires a certain level of technical skill. Social media sites make the task of updating contact information and uploading photographs.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication•8.) Communicate with compassion,

concern and empathy with an appreciation for individual and community’s unique decision heuristics.

• - social media allows members of a communication team to have names, point of views, and an ability to listen firsthand to stakeholders.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication•9.) Provide messages of self-efficacy•- messages of self-efficacy can help

restore a sense of control in an uncertain situation.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk communication•10.) Acknowledge and account for cultural

differences and enact relevant narratives –

•Traditional media is generally homogenous medium through which a broad and fixed audience finds news, new media involve a fragmentation of interests and audiences.

Case Studies•1.) Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention – Hurricane Tip of the Week. A message that is emailed and text messaged to those who have registered to receive the tips. The weekly tip, which has more than 1,600.00 Twitter followers and 34,000 email subscribers. It also available via widget.

Case Studies•2.) Health and Human Services (HHS) –

the agency created the HHS Peanut Product Recall Blog, with cross-agency posts, and leveraged a successful blog and network of bloggers at the CDC.

Case Studies•3.) Federal Emergency Management

Agency’s (FEMA) social branding – Each of FEMA’s regions has its own Twitter account with local partners, media and interested communities. Bloggers and Twitter users then spread FEMA’s message.

Case Studies•4.) The Red Cross’s Disaster Flicks –

While evacuating Galveston Island during Hurricane Ike, a field volunteer called the agency’s emergency 800-number with information to help residents safely leave the area. The audio component made it possible to hear sirens and other noise, thus recreating the experience for listeners.

Case Studies•5.) National Publuc Radio’s (NPR)

newsgathering via tags • - It was created by Andy Carvin before

Hurricane Gustav reached the US mainland. Carvin created tag-based Web site to collect information from people’s tweets, Utterli voice mails, Flickr photos and other sites that allow keyword searches to enter Google maps.