Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations

http://ow.ly/6zhBi

Article by Bruce R. Lindsay published by the Congressional Research Service.

This comprehensive article discusses the use of social media by government agencies.

The article mentions a Red Cross survey, "A 2009 study commissioned by the American Red Cross found that social media sites are the fourth most popular source to access emergency information."

The article also discussed best practices, and other considerations about governmental agencies use of social media to provide information and assistance to the public.

As the article points out FEMA might use social media, in the following manner:


"A second approach involves the systematic use of social media as an emergency management
tool. Systematic usage might include:

• using the medium to conduct emergency communications and issue warnings;
• using social media to receive victim requests for assistance;
• monitoring user activities and postings to establish situational awareness; and
• using uploaded images to create damage estimates, among others. "

The author also suggests the following "Best Practices":


"Scholarly studies on the use of social media for emergencies and disasters have identified a
number of “lessons learned” and “best practices” when using social media for emergency
management objectives. These include the need to:

• identify target audiences for the applications, such as civilians, nongovernmental
organizations, volunteers, and participating governments;
• determine appropriate types of information for dissemination;
• disseminate information the public is interested in (e.g. what phase the incident is
in, etc.)  and
• identify any negative consequences arising from the application—such as the
potential spread of faulty information—and work to eliminate or reduce such
consequences."

Furthermore, there are privacy considerations for the government, as the author points out:


"The E-Government Act of 2002 mandates that Federal agencies conduct an assessment of the
privacy impact of any substantially revised or new Information Technology System. The
document that results from these mandated assessments is called a Privacy Impact Assessment
(PIA). Section 208 of the E-Government Act requires federal agencies to complete PIAs prior to:
(1) developing or procuring information technologies that collect, maintain, or disseminate
personally identifiable information (PII); or (2) initiating, consistent with the Paperwork
Reduction Act, a new collection of PII from ten or more individuals in the public.
 The PIA uses the Fair Information Privacy Principles (FIPPs) to assess and mitigate any impact on an
individual’s privacy."