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 Crisis
Risk 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.
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
incidents and have a clearer geographic
visualization of the extent of the emergency.

Best Practice in Crisis and Risk
communication
4.) Listen to the publics 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
communitys 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 Agencys
(FEMA) social branding Each of FEMAs
regions has its own Twitter account with local
partners, media and interested communities.
Bloggers and Twitter users then spread FEMAs
message.

Case Studies
4.) The Red Crosss Disaster Flicks While
evacuating Galveston Island during Hurricane
Ike, a field volunteer called the agencys
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 Radios (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 peoples tweets, Utterli voice
mails, Flickr photos and other sites that allow
keyword searches to enter Google maps.