Social Media for the Crucial Moment
PRWR 613 Mid-Term Essay
Social media proves to be an unmatched tool
for communicating during a crisis. Recent events have shown us how social media
contributes differently than traditional sources for news. It proves that
writing short messages is among the most direct and effective ways to implement
news communications, especially in tense situations. It’s quick, to the point,
expressive and informative. The following interviews describe how users of
social media find it to be the most reliable tool in serious situations.
My cousin, Seth Melville, is a simple guy, a
free-thinker type who retains some of the punk subculture thinking shared by
many that group from the 70’s and 80’s. He contested to owning a cell phone for
years saying that he did not want anyone to have the ability to call him at any
time. “I don’t want to be that guy who talks on the phone in public.” Likewise
he also fought-off the social media world for many years but eventually broke
and joined both Facebook and Twitter back in the summer of 2010. Seth admits to
not knowing what he would do now that he’s online but a following local
emergency proved Twitter could have some timely practical uses.
I contacted my cousin for the
story and to ask specifically: What was it like being new to Social Media and then
using it right away for such an importance?
Large fires broke out in the mountains in
Boulder, CO in September 2010. Both Seth and his wife Nicole live in an
apartment in the small city and knew that the fire could come their way.
Fires are unique disasters. There are several
dangers to consider but mainly the unpredictable path of the fire and the
suffocating smoke. Hysteria is another issue. People panic, get confused and
cause all sorts of added problems. Managing reliable communications among everyone
involved is a real challenge.
Tracking the path of fire and smoke and
dealing with the panicky public is tricky. What Seth and Nicole found, to their
surprise, was that Twitter seemed to be the most reliable source for specific
information about the fire.
“It seemed that the thing that had the most
info, and also had the speed was Twitter. The Boulder Valley Emergency System
was second and the local news was third (Melville, 2012) .”
Seth acknowledges that he knew there were
plenty of practical uses for social media but was surprised that it became
relevant so quickly after he first joined. “We were checking to see if we were
possibly in the line of the fire (Melville, 2012) .” In addition to tracking the fire and
smoke Seth and Nicole were informed of whom was being evacuated and, “the
stupid drivers” he called them, who were jamming-up the roads around town (Melville,
2012) .
Seth, Nicole, their apartment and belongings
survived without suffering any damage from the fire. The following month (Oct.)
another fire of similar magnitude broke out and once again they monitored
Twitter for news. And once again they lucked out.
Seth says he’s impressed how effectively
Twitter can handle communications in such a disaster. He feels the documentary concepts
of Twitter are superior for finding important information. “You have to search
for news . . . (Melville, 2012) .” Seth explained how he monitors tweets
then back-tracks in the feed to find the full story or message. Twitter makes the
process easy and straight-forward.
Seth was also surprised that, after things
calmed-down, people were still tweeting with the Boulder Fire hash tag
(#Boulderfire). “Phase two was recovery (Melville, 2012) .” People were using Twitter to collect
food and clothes for the victims. People were also using Twitter to thank
firemen and others who actively helped in the community.
“Twitter is like core communication.” Seth
describes his first experiences with social media. “It’s not best for ideals;
more for support (Melville, 2012) .” I was surprised with the above quote
from my cousin. I had expected that he might use Twitter to share his thoughts
and opinions on random things. He is an intellectually creative guy, with a unique
point-of-view on things. We have very interesting conversations all the time.
My assumption was that he contributed to the #Boulderfire tweets and when it
was all over starting tweeting like crazy about other stuff. But this was not
the case. “I’ve never tweeted (Melville, 2012) .”
When asked if any of the tweets during the
fire were confusing, Seth said it was mostly straight-forward. Whenever a tweet
seemed to be missing something it could easily be completed by looking for the
preceding tweet. But Seth says communicating on Twitter was not a problem at
all. He did not have much trouble understanding what others were writing about
the fire. The tweets served as ample alerts and were to the point and
efficient.
I wanted more opinions about
using social media during a crisis. I asked my class (students at the CommunityCollege of Baltimore County, where I teach) if they had any similar experiences.
“Never forget!” said Forrest Woelfel when referring
to the fallen-over lawn chair picture that was passed around on Facebook - making
fun of the Baltimore earthquake of summer 2011. Other classmates chipped in, “You
couldn’t make a call or send a text but Facebook was working (class, 2012) .” The discussion
then moved on to, “Where were you during the earthquake?”
I pointed out to the class what
I thought was interesting about this example. For a long time, people have
relied on broadcast mediums (like TV and the phone) to communicate most
immediate information. But now Internet connections have become more reliable. A
few years back this wasn’t the case. Internet connections were hard to come by
and typically not that stable. I added that perhaps the thing behind the success
of social media, especially during a crisis, is the resilience of this
infrastructure. It’s now our true go-to pipeline for communication and it feels
like you can get online almost anywhere at any time. [This is when you could
start to hear the crickets. “Your sooooo smart ‘teach” was the look they gave
me.]
Social media may be just the thing we have
been looking for to handle communication in a crisis. Certainly there are many other
uses for social media, some more goofy, but it’s the versatility that’s
impressive. People seem to know how to use social media for more serious and
immediate situations despite all its other associations. And we find at the
center of all this is writing these short messages - headlines. A basic form of
news communications accelerated through the Web. This is why social media has changed
things so fast. Its textual premise is comfortable for most people.
The new dominate media platform is social
media and it’s fueled by the vast infrastructure of the Internet. It has become
our favorite thing on the Web. We use it for entertainment and communication.
It demands out attention throughout the day. You have to constantly go on there
and check Facebook, Twitter, etc. Combine this with the durability and availability
of Internet connections and the result is that we rely on it more and more. TV,
newspapers and phone calls are too slow. But what’s really exciting is that
this shift creates new opportunities for writing.
People have always taken the written
message very seriously. You could tell most of the stories that took place in
American history with a timeline of newspaper headlines. You might even be able
to tell your own story with a timeline of collected letters, postcards, certificates,
etc. Imagine parts of your life journal in one long documented feed. Could it
describe who you are and where you’re from? Would it be accurate? Interesting? It’s
easy to relate to communications served with text and it comes to us now, in social
media, better than anywhere else.
Bibliography
class, C. 1. (2012, March 22). (J.-R. Hilton,
Interviewer)
Melville, S. (2012, Feb 19). On the "Boulder
fire: Sept & Oct 2010". (J.-R. Hilton, Interviewer)
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