IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v111y2016icp86-96.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social media in emergency management: Twitter as a tool for communicating risks to the public

Author

Listed:
  • Panagiotopoulos, Panos
  • Barnett, Julie
  • Bigdeli, Alinaghi Ziaee
  • Sams, Steven

Abstract

One of the main challenges of emergency management lies in communicating risks to the public. On some occasions, risk communicators might seek to increase awareness over emerging risks, while on others the aim might be to avoid escalation of public reactions. Social media accounts offer an opportunity to rapidly distribute critical information and in doing so to mitigate the impact of emergencies by influencing public reactions. This article draws on theories of risk and emergency communication in order to consider the impact of Twitter as a tool for communicating risks to the public. We analyse 10,020 Twitter messages posted by the official accounts of UK local government authorities (councils) in the context of two major emergencies: the heavy snow of December 2010 and the riots of August 2011. Twitter was used in a variety of ways to communicate and manage associated risks including messages to provide official updates, encourage protective behaviour, increase awareness and guide public attention to mitigating actions. We discuss the importance of social media as means of increasing confidence in emergency management institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Panagiotopoulos, Panos & Barnett, Julie & Bigdeli, Alinaghi Ziaee & Sams, Steven, 2016. "Social media in emergency management: Twitter as a tool for communicating risks to the public," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 86-96.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:111:y:2016:i:c:p:86-96
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2016.06.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162516301196
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.06.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cynthia Chew & Gunther Eysenbach, 2010. "Pandemics in the Age of Twitter: Content Analysis of Tweets during the 2009 H1N1 Outbreak," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(11), pages 1-13, November.
    2. Thomas Heverin & Lisl Zach, 2012. "Use of microblogging for collective sense‐making during violent crises: A study of three campus shootings," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(1), pages 34-47, January.
    3. Laura N. Rickard & Katherine A. McComas & Christopher E. Clarke & Richard C. Stedman & Daniel J. Decker, 2013. "Exploring risk attenuation and crisis communication after a plague death in Grand Canyon," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 145-167, February.
    4. Anonymous, 2013. "Introduction to the Issue," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 243-243, December.
    5. Denis Smith & Brian Toft, 1998. "Risk and Crisis Management in the Public Sector: Editorial: Issues in Public Sector Risk Management," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 7-10, October.
    6. Denis Smith & Jo McCloskey, 1998. "Risk and Crisis Management in the Public Sector: Risk Communication and the Social Amplification of Public Sector Risk," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 41-50, October.
    7. Cécile Wendling & Jack Radisch & Stephane Jacobzone, 2013. "The Use of Social Media in Risk and Crisis Communication," OECD Working Papers on Public Governance 24, OECD Publishing.
    8. Thomas Heverin & Lisl Zach, 2012. "Use of microblogging for collective sense-making during violent crises: A study of three campus shootings," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(1), pages 34-47, January.
    9. Anonymous, 2013. "Introduction to the Issue," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 129-130, November.
    10. Dorasamy, Magiswary & Raman, Murali & Kaliannan, Maniam, 2013. "Knowledge management systems in support of disasters management: A two decade review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(9), pages 1834-1853.
    11. Zulean, Marian & Prelipcean, Gabriela, 2013. "Emergency preparedness in Romania: Dynamics, shortcomings and policy proposals," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(9), pages 1714-1724.
    12. Turoff, Murray & Hiltz, Starr Roxanne & Bañuls, Víctor A. & Van Den Eede, Gerd, 2013. "Multiple perspectives on planning for emergencies: An introduction to the special issue on planning and foresight for emergency preparedness and management," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(9), pages 1647-1656.
    13. William J. Burns & Paul Slovic & Roger E. Kasperson & Jeanne X. Kasperson & Ortwin Renn & Srinivas Emani, 1993. "Incorporating Structural Models into Research on the Social Amplification of Risk: Implications for Theory Construction and Decision Making," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(6), pages 611-623, December.
    14. Martin Lodge, 2009. "The Public Management of Risk: The Case for Deliberating among Worldviews," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 26(4), pages 395-408, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jyoti Prakash Singh & Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Nripendra P. Rana & Abhinav Kumar & Kawaljeet Kaur Kapoor, 2019. "Event classification and location prediction from tweets during disasters," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 283(1), pages 737-757, December.
    2. Margherita, Alessandro & Elia, Gianluca & Klein, Mark, 2021. "Managing the COVID-19 emergency: A coordination framework to enhance response practices and actions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    3. Robert Fabac & Davor Djalog & Vinko Zebic, 2015. "Organizing for Emergencies - Issues in Wildfire Fighting in Croatia," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 13(1), pages 99-116.
    4. Margherita, Alessandro & Heikkilä, Marikka, 2021. "Business continuity in the COVID-19 emergency: A framework of actions undertaken by world-leading companies," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 64(5), pages 683-695.
    5. Miguel Ramirez de la Huerga & Víctor A. Bañuls Silvera & Murray Turoff & Manuel Rincón Roldan, 2019. "Evaluation Tool for Business Success," Working Papers 19.01, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Business Organization and Marketing (former Department of Business Administration).
    6. Ranjana Raghunathan, 2022. "Everyday Intimacies and Inter-Ethnic Relationships: Tracing Entanglements of Gender and Race in Multicultural Singapore," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(1), pages 77-94, March.
    7. Balint, T. & Lamperti, F. & Mandel, A. & Napoletano, M. & Roventini, A. & Sapio, A., 2017. "Complexity and the Economics of Climate Change: A Survey and a Look Forward," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 252-265.
    8. Lamperti, Francesco & Bosetti, Valentina & Roventini, Andrea & Tavoni, Massimo & Treibich, Tania, 2021. "Three green financial policies to address climate risks," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. Songsore, Emmanuel & Buzzelli, Michael, 2014. "Social responses to wind energy development in Ontario: The influence of health risk perceptions and associated concerns," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 285-296.
    10. Tapsuwan, Sorada & Polyakov, Maksym & Bark, Rosalind & Nolan, Martin, 2015. "Valuing the Barmah–Millewa Forest and in stream river flows: A spatial heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (SHAC) approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 98-105.
    11. Omar Al-Ubaydli & John List & Claire Mackevicius & Min Sok Lee & Dana Suskind, 2019. "How Can Experiments Play a Greater Role in Public Policy? 12 Proposals from an Economic Model of Scaling," Artefactual Field Experiments 00679, The Field Experiments Website.
    12. Nepomuceno, Marcelo Vinhal & Laroche, Michel, 2015. "The impact of materialism and anti-consumption lifestyles on personal debt and account balances," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 654-664.
    13. Bertschek, Irene & Kesler, Reinhold, 2022. "Let the user speak: Is feedback on Facebook a source of firms’ innovation?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    14. Avelino, Flor & Wittmayer, Julia M. & Pel, Bonno & Weaver, Paul & Dumitru, Adina & Haxeltine, Alex & Kemp, René & Jørgensen, Michael S. & Bauler, Tom & Ruijsink, Saskia & O'Riordan, Tim, 2019. "Transformative social innovation and (dis)empowerment," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 195-206.
    15. Gigi Foster, 2020. "The behavioural economics of government responses to COVID-19," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 4(S3), pages 11-43, December.
    16. Audoly, Richard & Vogt-Schilb, Adrien & Guivarch, Céline & Pfeiffer, Alexander, 2018. "Pathways toward zero-carbon electricity required for climate stabilization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 884-901.
    17. Gerards, Ruud & Welters, Ricardo, 2016. "Impact of financial pressure on unemployed job search, job find success and job quality," ROA Research Memorandum 008, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    18. Cairns, George & Wright, George & Fairbrother, Peter, 2016. "Promoting articulated action from diverse stakeholders in response to public policy scenarios: A case analysis of the use of ‘scenario improvisation’ method," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 97-108.
    19. Vasile-Daniel Păvăloaia & Elena-Mădălina Teodor & Doina Fotache & Magdalena Danileţ, 2019. "Opinion Mining on Social Media Data: Sentiment Analysis of User Preferences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-21, August.
    20. Cailong Xu & Ruidong Li & Wenwen Song & Tingting Wu & Shi Sun & Shuixiu Hu & Tianfu Han & Cunxiang Wu, 2021. "Responses of Branch Number and Yield Component of Soybean Cultivars Tested in Different Planting Densities," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:111:y:2016:i:c:p:86-96. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.