Page 6 - MagSeptember2011EditiedVersion.indd

During the Queensland foods in January,

approximately 90 percent of the state was disaster-declared. In such a large-scale disaster, it was difcult to contact people via phone and many people found themselves isolated. Social media became an important way to get critical information to those who needed it most.

A case study issued by the Queensland Police Service (QPS) states how they used social media to deliver public safety information during the January foods. They used their own Facebook page to post regular media releases and posted links to these releases on Twitter. During the day after the fash foods, there were 450 post views per second and 100,000 ‘likes’ on the QPS Facebook page within the 24-hour period. However, the benefts of social media spread even further during the QLD foods when the public started using Facebook and Twitter to ask for help or to ofer their own disaster-relief services. It became an important tool for organizing volunteers, matching up those wanting to donate food and other items with those who needed it, and for providing support and lifting morale.

In a similar disaster-recovery initiative after the New Zealand earthquake, a group of well-known travel bloggers organized Blog4NZ—a three-day world-wide blogging event where participants blogged

many organizations that participated in this social media initiative.

Social media, however, is not always used to aid those afected by these types of events. During the London riots, Blackberry Messenger, a private social network used by Blackberry owners, was the preferred channel for rioters to spread the word about meeting places and times due to its private nature. This secure communication channel helped the riots to become as unpredictable and uncontrollable as they were because police were unable to trace the encrypted messages, therefore, reducing their ability to predict and prevent further rioting.

On the positive side, a Twitter account was created in the days after the riots to help organize cleanup eforts and, later, as a way to donate money towards helping the victims of the London riots. It’s clear that social media plays a huge role in managing disasters and events all around the world, whether that role be for positive or negative outcomes. It has gone from a fashionable way to communicate with friends to a phenomenon that is now used by businesses to promote their services and by government organizations, emergency services, and the general public to communicate with each other in times of need.