a thesis this is…

The following is a response to a required forum posting…

First, the simple break-down:

Problem: Communication prior to, during, and after a disaster

Solution: Savvy use of social media by emergency management

Thesis Statement: Social media—with it’s ease of use, maintenance, viral potential and connections to the public at large—is an important tool to harness for the emergency manager.

Now, the long-winded explanation of what I’m thinking:

For several years there has been a growing interest in the roles that social media can play during crises. We’ve seen people post messages on varying services alerting their friends and the public to disaster and distress; federal, state, and local agencies are now taking advantage of these services as well. My thesis will [hopefully] focus on this topic, with the main idea being the aforementioned thesis statement.

With the use of social media outlets agencies have the ability to reach additional audiences and also overlap pre-existing ones. Once upon a time we could rely upon the idea that the majority of the citizens had either a radio or television; today, this isn’t necessarily the case. Radio is still widely available, but too many people are not tuning in–with the advent of iPods and satellite radio, many aren’t listening to local broadcasts. It may still be a safe assumption that the average household has two televisions, but are these TVs watching satellite or terrestrial broadcasts? Too many people are “cutting the cord” and losing their connection to local media–these cord-cutters aren’t limited to mid- and upper-classes either. (Mine is a perfect example of a lower-class family which primarily watches IPTV–of course, I am a computer geek.)

The growing numbers of people making use of other technologies for media consumption need attention. Emergency managers should adjust to this trend by making available methods for the public to connect for receiving emergency information.

Additionally, making use of social media allows for an easy two-way connection to the public. An agency can easily collect a large amount of data from the public–by posting that an event has taken place in a certain area, the agency has not only informed the public but opened a discussion where community members can ask for and give additional details in near real-time.

…problematic? It can be… Most of the problems that can be associated with social media–with an exception to bad PR–are issues that we already deal with. Technical issues are present and have been present with many of our solutions for years. EAS broadcasts, tornado warning sirens–these systems are supposed to be reliable, functional and fast; frequently they fail in some way, usually related to an error in communications protocol–a bad radio transmitter, power, etc. Social media’s big failure can happen in the same way–broken telephone, cable, ISDN line or lack of power.

The only problem that social media could invite is one that can be prevented if agencies become involved–bad PR. By establishing a presence, however, any negative relations can be at a minimum as the door is opened for friendly discussion and resolution…

[…does this make sense? ]

These are the issues that I really want to express, along with using examples of more recent events where social media has been used either intentionally or accidentally and how the use has aided in disaster response and recovery.

To wrap it all up, I want to say something like—“It’s frickin’ easy, we all need to do it!”—but, of course, in a more educated and professional manner.

This topic may end up proving to be a large one to tackle, with much time being spent on sorting out opinion from facts; making use of the research tools available in our virtual library should aid in making the chore easier.

After a bit of digging, I found to have a nice amount of luck using ProQuest and LexisNexis—the latter coming as a surprise. I believe I will also be making use of the iSeek engine for some supplemental “non-scholarly” information; I found the manner in which that service provides categories—similar to the way LexisNexis allows for the refinement of searches—to be quite helpful.

This post recieved the following comment:

Johnathon Austin:
Jeremiah,

Technology is always changing and evolving, and a big result of that is social media. The fingerprints of social media are everywhere, because everyone, and every business uses it. It allows for instant transmission of news and information. I do agree with you that this will be a large topic to tackle because of how far it reaches, but I do believe that with some good research you will be able to do a good job. I was really surprised also at the amount of energy I was able to get from LexisNexis. I think it just might be my favorite database to use. Good luck!