Practical Assignment, Part 1: Discussion Forum "Social media for risk communication - to use or not to use?"

The benefit of social Media is that you can access information from any part you like and the risk it has is that their is no privacy

Advantage: Information in social media spreads very quickly, for example, one person can write a warning post on facebook, and everyone else can share it and alert others.

Disadvantage: Information in social media is available to almost everyone, there is a lack of privacy, for example, a person can take a screenshot of warning message, change the information in it, make it inaccurate and mislead others.

In these days we must go step by step with communicating online.

Disadvantage. Then speaking about risk messages on social network, we must evaluate the risk of spreading false information - it can cause massive panic. Social profiles can be hacked and used by mean purpose.

Advantage. Most of the time it is the most effective tool to spread the message very fast by different types (pictures, text, video and etc.). For example you can find these different Facebook profiles. The first one is a specialists social profile there the meteorologist post his professional news about weather conditions. The second video is the official channel of CNN there they can spread news for millions (about 30 million followers).

Blog -  Meteorologist Eric Wilhelm: https://www.facebook.com/EricWFMJ/videos/812322838921361/  

Social media is a set of valuable channels for providing and spreading facts and recommendations right in time during the crisis or risk. Videos, pictures, etc. help to create a a convincing and easy to understand message.

On the the other hand, social media can exacerbate crises by spreading negative information or misinformation at a big speed. Focusing on emotions too much, viral misinformation and too many interpretations can make it very difficult to control and manage risk communication. Social media can create a lot of noise in which relevant information might be lost.

Example of using social media in risk communication:

Warning about Zika virus in Brazil (5 million views, 60000 shares): https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/672188842922626/

Social media allows to communicate in real time, to transmit information to many people. These benefits could be illustrated with the example about fast-moving wildfires in Los Angeles. Social media helps people in affected areas to get  the latest information about the extent of fire, road closures and other important data. For this reason Google Crisis Response published Crisis Map for Southern California Wildfires (link).

The main disadvantage I believe is the overloading information. In crisis people are trying to find the most relevant information, but the vast number of posts is not helping. For example, Los Angeles Times gives live updates with videos, gathers information from various sources (link), but these updates start to lose seriousness when the video with a man saving the rabbit from fire appears in the news feed.

Socialedia has democratised creation and consumption of information. With the almost free access users have, the opportunity to create or consume value is now available to all. Unfortunately, the responsibility for censorship is also left to the discretion of the user. 

As a result of the platform provided by facebook, my friend in New York, Olubunmi, can raise funds to support the children at St. Jude's hospital (see FB screenshot). But at the same time some as Nigerians grapple with the reality of the rare Monkeypox disease, someone is leveraging the social media to promote some propaganda inciting fear among citizens and doubt on the government's efforts (see Twitter screenshot).

Social media plays relevant role in risk communication nowadays. As I believe, the main advantage of social media usage for risk communication is wordl wide audience that can be reached at the current time. People may share information with others and spread the news. Information, such as risk of volcain eruption, can reach people in a fast and cheap way.

On the other hand, information that is shared on th social media usually is not checked or reliable. Moreover, as well as sharing facts, people may share their own believs and points of view of a particular situation. 

Nevertheless social media is a crucial tool for risk communication. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DSG7jMp6bxuKYkWibvzUTmcW6TIja6pR/view?usp=sharing

What kind of advantages and disadvantages do you see in using social media for risk communication? 

Advantages:  speed of communication, geo-tagged visual images and information; allows for multiple communicators (different points of view); often works when electricity fails (at least till batteries run out)

Disadvantages: finding and following credible sources of info vs. sources that share false information; crisis managers have to spend time correcting false information; although many people do follow social media many people do not (older people, disadvantaged people, etc).

I find social media as a crucial tool for communicating risk towards the society. Since nowadays most of us are interconnected cybernetically, the audience is massive, whereas the reach is often instantaneous. However, with the ever increasing ease of access, people with dishonest intentions are inevitably also granted these opportunities. People must therefore be proactive and follow up the information they are provided with.

Example: via social media, a group of activists heard of an traffic accident involving a truck transporting countless sentient animals for slaughter. Due to the availability of the live information, the group was able to save the life of one bird..

Advantages of social media: People from anywhere can connect with anyone to share their thoughts. Information spreads in real time (24/7), free advertising, large audience (millions of social media users) ability to deliver specific content to a very specific target group.

Disadvantages: there is no control of content, so there are a lot of misinformation in social media. Because of large amount of information and news, the spread message may  be unnoticed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcU-6PsAoIp/