Mobilising helpers in the event of a flood or letting friends know that you are okay in the event of a terrorist attack – more and more people are using social media in emergency, crisis or disaster situations. Storms, floods, attacks or pandemics (esp. COVID-19) show that citizens use social media to inform themselves or to coordinate. This book presents qualitative and quantitative studies on the attitudes of emergency services and citizens in Europe towards social media in emergencies. Across the individual sub-studies, almost 10,000 people are surveyed including representative studies in the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Italy. The work empirically shows that social media is increasingly important for emergency services, both for prevention and during crises; that private use of social media is a driving force in shaping opinions for organisational use; and that citizens have high expectations towards authorities, especially monitoring social media is expected, and sometimes responses within one hour. Depending on the risk culture, the data show further differences, e.g. whether the state (Germany) or the individual (Netherlands) is seen as primarily responsible for coping with the situation.
Author(s): Christian Reuter
Publisher: Springer Vieweg
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 291
City: Wiesbaden
Acknowledgements
Summary
Samenvatting
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
1.1 Motivation and Problem Statement
1.2 Aim and Research Questions
1.3 Content and Contributions
1.4 Underlying Publications and Contributions of the Authors
2 The State of the Art in Crisis Informatics
2.1 Case Studies of Social Media in Emergencies
2.1.1 Chronological Overview of Case Studies
2.1.2 Observation of Trends in Social Media Case Studies
2.2 Types of Crisis Informatics Research
2.2.1 Empirical Investigation of Social Media Use
2.2.2 Collection and Processing of Social Media Data
2.2.3 System Design, Building and Evaluation
2.2.4 Cumulative and Longitudinal Research
2.2.5 Summary of Research Types
2.3 Types of Interaction: Usage Patterns in Crisis Informatics
2.3.1 From Citizens to Citizens (C2C)—Self-Help Communities
2.3.2 From Authorities to Citizens (A2C)—Crisis Communication
2.3.3 From Citizens to Authorities (C2A)—Use of Citizen-Generated Content
2.3.4 From Authorities to Authorities (A2A)—Organisational Crisis Management
2.3.5 Summary of Usage Patterns
2.4 Summary, Research Gaps and Next Steps
3 Attitudes by Emergency Services Staff in Europe
3.1 Related Work
3.1.1 Emergency Services’ Potentials and Challenges of using Social Media
3.1.2 Related Survey Studies on Social Media Use and Attitudes of Emergency Services
3.1.3 Research Gap
3.2 European Emergency Services Perception in 2014
3.2.1 Methodology
3.2.2 Empirical Results
3.2.3 Discussion and Conclusion
3.3 Attitudes by Emergency Services Staff in Europe in 2014 and 2017
3.3.1 Methodology
3.3.2 Empirical Results I: Trends between 2014 and 2017
3.3.3 Empirical Results II: Merged Data Results
3.3.4 Discussion and Conclusion
3.4 Summary and Next Steps
4 Citizens’ Perception of Social Media in Emergencies in Europe
4.1 Related Work
4.2 Citizens’ Perception of Social Media in Emergencies in Europe
4.2.1 Methodology
4.2.2 Empirical Results
4.2.3 Discussion and Conclusion
4.3 The Impact of Risk Cultures in Social Media Use in Emergencies
4.3.1 Theoretical Framing
4.3.2 Methodology
4.3.3 Empirical Results
4.3.4 Discussion and Conclusion
4.4 Summary and Next Steps
5 Tailorable Situation Assessment with Social Media
5.1 Related Work
5.1.1 Big Data, Social Media and Data Analysis
5.1.2 The End-User Development Perspective in Data Analysis
5.1.3 Existing Approaches in EUD and Emergency Management
5.2 Social Media Assessment by Emergency Services
5.2.1 Methodology
5.2.2 Results I: Use of Citizen-Generated Content for Situation Assessment
5.2.3 Results II: Selection and Quality Assessment of Social Media Content
5.2.4 Results III: Responsibility and Decision Making
5.3 EUD in Social Big Data Gathering and Assessment
5.3.1 EUD in Social Big Data Gathering
5.3.2 EUD in Social Big Data Assessment
5.4 Evaluation: Tailorable Quality Assessment
5.4.1 Methodology
5.4.2 Results I: How much Tailoring? Quality Assessment Criteria
5.4.3 Results II: Broad Information Basis and Information Overload
5.4.4 Results III: Automatic and Tailorable Quality Assessment Necessary
5.5 Design Requirements and Social Media Observatory
5.6 Summary and Next Steps
6 Self-Organisation of Digital Volunteers across Social Media
6.1 Related Work
6.1.1 Real and Digital Volunteers in Emergencies
6.1.2 Volunteers and Social Media
6.1.3 Volunteers—Potentials and Obstacles
6.1.4 Existing Approaches and Tools
6.1.5 State of Play
6.2 Empirical Study
6.2.1 Methodology
6.2.2 The Study Case: European Floods 2013 in Germany
6.2.3 Results I: Different Types of Social Media and ICT during the Floods
6.2.4 Results II: (Self-)Organisation with Social Media
6.2.5 Results III: Discussion of Challenges and Patterns
6.2.6 Interim Summary
6.3 XHELP: Cross-Social-Media Application for Volunteers
6.3.1 Cross-Social-Media Search and Filter Function
6.3.2 Publication and Management of Relevant Messages
6.3.3 Evaluation with Volunteers and Citizens
6.4 Design Requirements
6.5 Summary
7 Discussion and Conclusion
7.1 The State of the Art in Crisis Informatics
7.2 Attitudes of Emergency Services’ Staff
7.3 Citizens’ Perception towards Social Media in Emergencies
7.4 Situational Assessment of Emergency Services
7.5 Self-Organisation of Digital Volunteers with Social Media
7.6 Policy Recommendations and Limitations
References
