The Use of Social Media in Disaster Preparedness: A Special Studies Project Público

Abstract

The rise of social media as an information and communication technology (ICT) tool has led to growing innovation in public health, especially disaster preparedness and response. The emergence parallels the growth of Web 2.0 applications and mobile-device users worldwide. Social media has been heavily leveraged in disaster response and recovery. Diverse functionalities include attaining situational awareness, crowdsourcing data, crisis mapping, and addressing rumors and misinformation. Yet for disaster preparedness, there remain untapped opportunities.

This special study project focuses on building a body of work on disaster preparedness that does and could (should) exist in the social media landscape. The purpose of this special study project is to create a social media toolkit; designed to explore the benefits, challenges, issues, tensions, and innovations of social media technologies for disaster preparedness and risk reduction. The objectives are to develop a social media communications strategy; create a compendium of blog posts and accompanying social media marketing materials; and design an evaluation framework to monitor and evaluate social media activity and engagement.

The development of the social media toolkit is grounded in best practices for health communication. An exploratory search of organizations and agencies working in disaster preparedness and response, disaster risk reduction, and public health emergencies was conducted to identify influencers, whether individuals or organizations, in these fields. A literature review of published literature and gray literature was also conducted to identify topic areas for content development.

This work offers a justification for the merits of social media in preparedness and response, and calls for the continued exploration of social media to harness its merits and uniqueness as drivers of innovation and growth in disasters and emergencies. The demonstration of leveraged (and the lack thereof) social media during non-disaster times will contribute to the existing body of work of disaster preparedness and response. Future research should evaluate social media platforms to identify which platforms are most effective and valuable to the public for disaster preparedness.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1

Introduction and rationale............................................................................................................. 1

Problem statement ...................................................................................................................... 2

Purpose statement ...................................................................................................................... 3

Significance statement................................................................................................................. 3

Definition of terms....................................................................................................................... 3

Chapter 2: Literature Review.................................................................................................... 5

Disasters and Public Health Emergencies ....................................................................................... 5

Social Media .............................................................................................................................. 7

Social Media in Disasters and Public Health Emergencies.................................................................. 9

Social Media Adoption in Response and Recovery .......................................................................... 11

Social Media Adoption in Preparedness and Prevention.................................................................... 13

Limitations of Social Media Use ................................................................................................... 14

Project Relevance ...................................................................................................................... 15

Chapter 3: Methods ................................................................................................................. 16

Communication Strategy Development.......................................................................................... 16

Content Development ................................................................................................................. 17

Evaluation Framework Development.............................................................................................. 18

Chapter 4: Results.................................................................................................................... 19

Social media toolkit .................................................................................................................... 19 Implementation.......................................................................................................................... 20

Chapter 5: Discussion .............................................................................................................. 24

Limitations................................................................................................................................. 25

Public Health Implications ........................................................................................................... 26

Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 26

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 27

References............................................................................................................................... 28

Appendix: Social Media Toolkit ................................................................................................ 32

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Hubert Department of Global Health
Degree	MPH
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health
Palabra Clave	health communcation information and communication technology disaster preparedness and response social media
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	McNabb, Scott JN, Emory University
Committee Members	Keim, Mark Edward, Emory University
Partnering Agencies	Does not apply (no collaborating organization)

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