Improving crisis situations via new media
The extent to which current new media applications are assisting decision makers, law enforcement officials and first responders in an effective way remains uncertain. To help address this issue, the EU-funded project 'The contribution of social media in crisis management' (COSMIC) is examining the responsibilities of key crisis management players and reconsidering their communication requirements, infrastructure difficulties and main security concerns during emergencies. During the first reporting period, the project partners mapped crises, the use of existing ICT and emerging applications in crises. Floods, extreme temperatures, storms, wildfires, earthquakes and man-made disasters were identified as the six main crises affecting EU Member States. Findings showed that social media had a positive impact on citizens and emergency response organisations. For current ICT, social media was widely used for most crises. However, a high rate of abuse was identified, including misinformation, misrepresentation, propaganda, surveillance and censorship. The use of emerging ICT such as citizen journalism, cloud, crowdsourcing, data mining and big data were investigated before, during and after crises, in addition to their risks and opportunities. Also, researchers analysed the roles of citizens as social activists, first responders or citizen reporters in emergency communications. A database has been set up comprising more than 2 000 crisis management stakeholders from 43 countries. The project team also produced guidelines for the use of new media by the public before and during crisis situations, as well as the use of new media by public and private organisations. Lastly, two workshops were held in 2014 on the impact of new media on crisis management processes that targeted crisis management stakeholders. By exploring new and emerging ICT, and delivering instructions, recommendations and best practices to stakeholders and enhancing communication channels, COSMIC will benefit European society in times of crisis.
Keywords
Information and communications technology, crisis management, social media, security
