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Social media in emergency management: exploring Twitter use by emergency responders in the UK

Social media in emergency management: exploring Twitter use by emergency responders in the UK
Social media in emergency management: exploring Twitter use by emergency responders in the UK
Emergency management practices are being reshaped by social media. Emergency responders are embracing social media to enhance communications during an emergency. The integration of social media into UK emergency management is ambigious, and it is uncertain as to whether it is an effective tool. Using a mixed methods approach, this research investigates the UK emergency responders’ use of social media for emergency management, focusing in particular on the UK Winter Floods of 2013/14. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the UK emergency responders’ social media activity is examined. This research shows that the responders perceive social media as a useful tool to effectively deliver information to the public, although they do not appear to fully exploit it in an emergency. While the responders appear to predominantly post caution and advice, the results suggest that information about structures and utilities affected by an incident is most likely to engage an audience.
322-343
Parsons, Sophie
4b65648f-7530-43df-a606-7cfac750e046
Weal, Mark
e8fd30a6-c060-41c5-b388-ca52c81032a4
O'Grady, Nathaniel
10d54575-aaf3-4efb-acec-907df5c62be2
Atkinson, Peter
96e96579-56fe-424d-a21c-17b6eed13b0b
Parsons, Sophie
4b65648f-7530-43df-a606-7cfac750e046
Weal, Mark
e8fd30a6-c060-41c5-b388-ca52c81032a4
O'Grady, Nathaniel
10d54575-aaf3-4efb-acec-907df5c62be2
Atkinson, Peter
96e96579-56fe-424d-a21c-17b6eed13b0b

Parsons, Sophie, Weal, Mark, O'Grady, Nathaniel and Atkinson, Peter (2019) Social media in emergency management: exploring Twitter use by emergency responders in the UK. International Journal of Emergency Management, 14 (4), 322-343. (doi:10.1504/IJEM.2018.097360).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Emergency management practices are being reshaped by social media. Emergency responders are embracing social media to enhance communications during an emergency. The integration of social media into UK emergency management is ambigious, and it is uncertain as to whether it is an effective tool. Using a mixed methods approach, this research investigates the UK emergency responders’ use of social media for emergency management, focusing in particular on the UK Winter Floods of 2013/14. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the UK emergency responders’ social media activity is examined. This research shows that the responders perceive social media as a useful tool to effectively deliver information to the public, although they do not appear to fully exploit it in an emergency. While the responders appear to predominantly post caution and advice, the results suggest that information about structures and utilities affected by an incident is most likely to engage an audience.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 15 January 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 430228
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/430228
PURE UUID: 4f7720b1-19e5-4b5f-b392-112ba740b2bd
ORCID for Sophie Parsons: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2713-6448
ORCID for Mark Weal: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-8786
ORCID for Peter Atkinson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5489-6880

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Date deposited: 16 Apr 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:46

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Contributors

Author: Sophie Parsons ORCID iD
Author: Mark Weal ORCID iD
Author: Nathaniel O'Grady
Author: Peter Atkinson ORCID iD

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