Eye of the social media storm

The use of social media during an emergency may save lives, but there are risks, experts say

“SOCIAL MEDIA ALSO ALLOWS QPS TO ACCESS IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK AND INFORMATION FROM THE PUBLIC DURING DISASTER EVENTS.”

ACCESSING up-to-date information in disaster situations has never been so easy.

Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook provide instant facts and alerts about storms and cyclones from official sources, and opportunities to share information.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services recognises the value of using social media to reach the public during disasters and major incidents.

And the Queensland Police Service won international recognition for its mastery of social media during the 2011 floods.

Doctor Emma Potter-Hay, who spent almost two years embedded in the QFES for her PhD on disaster communication, said those floods were a turning point for the use of social media, both from the community’s perspective and for emergency services.

“That really marked a shift in where many people sourced their information,” Dr PotterHay said.

“If you look at the number of followers of the QPS and QFES on Twitter and Facebook, I think that’s an indication that people expect that is where they’ll get their information.”

Currently the QPS Facebook page has 835,000 followers, and the police Twitter feed is followed by 182,000 people.

QFES has 50,100 followers on Twitter and more than 240,000 on Facebook.

QPS media and public affairs director Simon Kelly said social media has become an imperative tool for communicating urgent and up-to-date messages directly to the public and the media in real time during major weather events.

“Social media also allows QPS to access immediate feedback and information from the public during disaster events,” Mr Kelly said. “In some circumstances, where emergency services are unable to attend to certain locations, it provides a situational awareness of impacted communities.”

But the relatively new form of communication is not without its challenges.

Mr Kelly said one of those was competing with false or misleading information that can be rapidly shared on social media. “Where possible, we do our best to join the online conversation by dispelling incorrect rumours and providing factual information,” he said.

During the 2011 floods, the QPS made a huge success of the hashtag “mythbusters” to identify and correct false information.

Dr Potter-Hay said some posts even amounted to “fake news”, like the image of a shark at the bottom of a set of escalators in a mall which regularly pops up on social media during major flooding events.

“I’ve seen that one used over and over, along with an image of a wave going over the Statue of Liberty,” she said. “Another hindrance is the temptation for people to go outside and put themselves in danger, to get more information and possibly take photos and share those images on social media.

“That can be heightened when a media outlet encourages people to “send us your photos” of the cyclone hitting or floodwaters.”

Professor Axel Bruns from the Queensland University of Technology Digital Media Research Centre said another challenge for government-run emergency groups using social media was the organisational structure.

He pointed out that messages may be required to clear several levels of approval, and then there’s the risk of political interference.

“That can be a problem if you have a political figure who wants to show they’re an effective crisis manager rather than letting the general staff deal with it,” Prof Bruns said.

“I have heard during one of the cyclones, a lot of the approvals had to go through the (then) premier’s office and that created a bottleneck.”

Another “tension” is the disconnect between those emergency personnel on the ground and those responsible for managing social media messages.

“There can be some difficult choices for people to make on the ground when they’re dealing with an unfolding crisis, and at the same time having to let people at head office know what is going on,” Prof Bruns said.

“There’s that conflict of saving people on the ground, versus getting information out that might help a whole lot of other people.”

As an early adopter of social media during crises, Australia, and particularly Queensland, are used as references for other countries. “We’ve become quite well known for how well we dealt with floods and that’s influenced a lot of other places,” Prof Bruns said.

“In the UK, local police forces now have all of their officers on social media, which could be problematic given not everyone is adept at using it.”

Other challenges from the use of social media during emergencies, relate to wellmeaning people using emergency service hashtags to post messages of support and praise.

“If you’re following the hashtag “cyclonedebbie” or “qldfloods”, for example, and you’re getting a lot of people posting inane messages like “thinking of all those in the cyclone’s path”, then that’s going to make it harder to find the important information,” Prof Bruns said.

QUT researcher Judith Newton saw another issue with relying on social media for information during emergencies.

“As useful as Twitter or Facebook might be, they’re not much help when the phone dies and it can’t be recharged because you’ve got no power,” Ms Newton said.

“It just goes to show that when preparing for a storm or flood, you still need batteries and a radio because that’s likely to be your best source of information in that situation.”