The Use of Social Media in Disaster Situations

2012 ◽  
pp. 11-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Lang ◽  
Raquel Benbunan-Fich
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Virginia Tech ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Public ◽  
Virginia Tech Tragedy ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Recent disasters highlight the importance of social media supporting critical information gathering and dissemination efforts by members of the public. Given that disasters pose unique challenges and social media are evolving rapidly, how can one compare the effectiveness of social media in different disaster situations? Drawing from prior work on e-participation, this paper proposes a novel framework for social media use based on four key modules: selection, facilitation, deliberation, and aggregation. A comparative analysis of social media use following a man-made disaster (the 2007 Virginia Tech tragedy) and during a natural disaster (the 2009 Britain blizzard) exemplifies the value of the proposed framework. Future research can build on and leverage the present work by analyzing and incorporating additional cases on the use of social media in disaster situations.

The Use of Social Media in Disaster Situations

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Lang ◽  
Raquel Benbunan-Fich
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Virginia Tech ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Public ◽  
Virginia Tech Tragedy ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Recent disasters highlight the importance of social media supporting critical information gathering and dissemination efforts by members of the public. Given that disasters pose unique challenges and social media are evolving rapidly, how can one compare the effectiveness of social media in different disaster situations? Drawing from prior work on e-participation, this article proposes a novel framework for social media use based on four key modules: selection, facilitation, deliberation, and aggregation. A comparative analysis of social media use following a man-made disaster (the 2007 Virginia Tech tragedy) and during a natural disaster (the 2009 Britain blizzard) exemplifies the value of the proposed framework. Future research can build on and leverage the present work by analyzing and incorporating additional cases on the use of social media in disaster situations.

scholarly journals How Social Are Social Media? A Review of Online Social Behaviour and Connectedness

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracii Ryan ◽  
Kelly A. Allen ◽  
DeLeon L. Gray ◽  
Dennis M. McInerney
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Key Aspects

The use of social media is rapidly increasing, and one of the major discussions of the 21st century revolves around how the use of these applications will impact on the social relationships of users. To contribute to this discussion, we present a brief narrative review highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of social media use on three key aspects of social connectedness: social capital, sense of community, and loneliness. The results indicate that using social media can increase social capital, lead to the formation of friendships and communities, and reduce loneliness. However, some social media site users may experience weakening friendships, online ostracism, and heightened loneliness. Therefore, we argue that the use of social media has contradictory effects on social connectedness. Moreover, the direction of these outcomes is contingent upon who is using the site and how they are using it. Based on these arguments, possible directions for future research are discussed. It is recommended that discourse be continued relating to the association between online social behaviour and connectedness, as this will enable researchers to establish whether the positive outcomes of social media use outweigh the negative.

scholarly journals The social media political participation model: A goal systems theory perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Knoll ◽  
Jörg Matthes ◽  
Raffael Heiss
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Social ◽  
Goal Systems ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Although studies suggest that the use of social media can promote political participation (PP), there is a lack of theorizing about the psychological processes underlying this relationship. This article attempts to fill this gap by suggesting a social media political participation model. Taking a goal systemic perspective, the model specifies a set of interrelated processes that need to be realized so that social media use affects PP. Furthermore, key contingent conditions are outlined and insights into fostering PP are offered. The article explains ways of testing the model with surveys and experiments. Implications for future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Networked Scholarship and Motivations for Social Media use in Scholarly Communication

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Manca ◽  
Maria Ranieri
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
National Level ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Disciplinary Field ◽  
Use Of Social Media

<p class="3">Research on scholars’ use of social media suggests that these sites are increasingly being used to enhance scholarly communication by strengthening relationships, facilitating collaboration among peers, publishing and sharing research products, and discussing research topics in open and public formats. However, very few studies have investigated perceptions and attitudes towards social media use for scholarly communication of large cohorts of scholars at national level. This study investigates the reasons for using social media sites for scholarly communication among a large sample of Italian university scholars (N=6139) with the aim of analysing what factors mainly affect these attitudes. The motivations for using social media were analysed in connection with frequency of use and factors like gender, age, years of teaching, academic title, and disciplinary field. The results point out that for the most used tools the influence of the variables examined was higher in shaping scholars’ motivations. In fact, frequency of use, age, years of teaching, and disciplinary field were found to be relevant factors especially for LinkedIn and ResearchGate-Academia.edu, while gender and academic title seemed to have a limited impact on scholars’ motivations for all social media sites considered in the study. Considerations for future research are provided along with limitations of the study.</p>

A human rights perspective on the use of social media by the ambulance services

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 532-537
Author(s):  
Chris Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Ambulance Service ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Duty ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Uk

Social media use on behalf of ambulance services by paramedics, student paramedics and ancillary staff—‘corporate tweeting’, as it has become known—has in recent times been the subject of much debate in the paramedic profession. It has been argued that social media use is an unstoppable tide and a necessary means of imparting information to members of the public about the work the ambulance service performs. Conversely, others have argued that by tweeting about their patients, the ambulance service is breaching a fundamental code of professional ethics due to the use of confidential patient data. This article explores the UK legal framework of privacy and confidence in the healthcare context, from a human rights perspective, and seeks to demonstrate that some corporate tweeting has breached not only ethical standards, but may also have crossed the line into unlawfulness owing to the public nature of the organisations involved, and their legal duty to protect the human rights of their service users.

scholarly journals Between hope and fear: developing social media guidelines

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaël Opgenhaffen ◽  
An-Sofie Claeys
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Potential Risks ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine employers’ policy with regard to employees’ social media use. Specifically, the authors examine the extent to which employers allow the use of social media in the workplace, what opportunities can be related to employees’ social media use and how social media guidelines are implemented within organizations. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews were conducted with HR and communication managers of 16 European companies from different sectors and of varying size. Findings Some organizations believe that social media should be accessible to employees while others ban them from the workplace. Most respondents believe that organizations can benefit from employees sharing work-related content with their own network. However, they encourage the sharing and retweeting of official corporate messages rather than employees developing their own messages. This fear regarding employees’ messages on social media is reflected in the broad adoption of social media guidelines. Research limitations/implications Future research should chart the nature of existing social media guidelines (restrictive vs incentive). Accordingly, the perceived sense and nonsense of social media guidelines in companies should be investigated, not only among the managers but also among employees. Practical implications Organizations should remain in dialogue with employees with regard to social media. Managers seem overly concerned with potential risks and forget the opportunities that can arise when employees operate as ambassadors. Originality/value The use of in-depth interviews allowed the authors to assess the rationale behind social media guidelines within organizations in depth and formulate suggestions to organizations and communication managers.

An Analysis of the Use and Policies Regarding Social Media Use as a Work Tool in Public Rehabilitation

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Garcia ◽  
Robert J. Zeglin ◽  
Shari Matray ◽  
Robert Froehlich ◽  
Ronica Marable ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Media Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Public Rehabilitation

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to gather descriptive data on the professional use of social media in public rehabilitation settings and to analyze existing social media policies in those agencies through content analysis.Methods: The authors sent a survey to all state administrators or directors of these agencies (N = 50) in the United States, requesting frequency and other descriptive information, plus a copy of their social media policies (if available). The available policies were reviewed using content analysis procedures.Results: The results showed that although the frequency of social media use was high, training and inclusion of ethics was low. Regarding policy, approximately 42% reported a lack of an existing policy, and 38% were unsure about having a policy guide. The analysis of the available policies yielded 11 themes around which these policies were organized.Discussion: The authors offer a discussion of these results and its implications for policy and practice as well as future research. These include the need for more comprehensive social media policy creation in agencies and the role of clinical supervisors in ensuring ethical practice.

scholarly journals Social Media Affordances and Information Sharing: An Evidence from Chinese Public Organizations

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhan Khan ◽  
Xiangyun Si ◽  
Kashif Ullah Khan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Public Organizations ◽  
Middle Level ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
The Public ◽  
Chinese Public

Abstract The study aims to reveal the role of social media and its influence on information sharing within public organizations and emphasis on the distribution affordance to facilitate information processes. Existing literature emphasized different aspects of social media in the public sector to promote the relationship between government and citizens or provide better public service, for example, innovation, policies, openness, and communication. However, there is a wide gap in the literature to investigate social media use and information sharing within public organizations. The current study tries to accomplish the goal by conducting semi-structured interviews with 15 employees in public organizations in Chaohu city, China and applying content analysis on the interviews. Despite the existing literature, the targeted group for this study is divided into three levels (i) senior-level, (ii) middle-level, and (iii) junior-level employees to get a better view of social media. The study is based on grounded theory for coding analysis. We provide an overview of social media use within Chinese public organizations and discuss five social media affordances involved in the public organizations. Finally, we provide the implications, limitations, recommendation, and future research of this research area.

scholarly journals Evidence based social media use: an exploratory UK investigation into residents’ perceptions of police Facebook use

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
Ashley Cartwright ◽  
Chloe Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Police Services ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Purpose Social media is an integral part of modern society and is used by billions of people worldwide. In a policing context, police services are starting to use social media platforms to interact with their communities. However, academic literature is lagging regarding the effectiveness of police use of social media. The purpose of this study is to gather public perceptions regarding the police’s use of social media particularly the use of Facebook. Design/methodology/approach The study administered a cross sectional survey recruiting participants who are policed by one of the larger police services in England and Wales. A total of 294 respondents completed the survey providing their views on their police service’s use of social media. Findings The results of the present study provide overwhelming support for the police’s use of social media by the public, with most respondents actively following their local police service’s social media accounts. The study additionally provides a number of important findings in relation to the preferences of the public with regards to their police service’s use of Facebook. Practical implications The findings presented here provide police services with an insight into how to implement an evidenced-based approach to their social media activity. Originality/value The present study takes an alternative approach to understanding the effectiveness of police social media use by simply asking residents, an approach not used in this area of policing research to date.

Social Media in Teacher Education

2018 ◽  
pp. 2023-2051
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Paul Carpenter ◽  
Daniel G. Krutka
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Educational Potential

Social media's rise has affected human interactions in significant ways, and such media may support learning. But how to prepare teachers who can maximize the educational potential of these technologies remains unclear. In this chapter the authors aim to summarize and synthesize extant research concerning social media use in teacher education, specifically attending to methods, theories, and findings. They begin by defining and situating social media with an eye towards affordances and drawbacks. The authors discuss pertinent research through the lens of experiences various mediums afford individuals and groups, including enhanced interaction, discussion, collaboration, community, feedback, mentoring, and support. Opportunities and challenges associated with the use of social media in the preparation of teachers in and for the digital age are discussed, and the chapter concludes by detailing implications of the existing literature for theory, practice, and future research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document