Utilizing social media for information dispersal during local disasters: The communication hub framework for local emergency management

Abstract

In today’s society, the use of social media has increased the public’s desire to receive information quickly and to be able to interact with communicators. During a disaster, the trend to turn to social media for information has risen in popularity. Society’s reliance on social media and quick access to information has led the field of emergency management and the role of a Public Information Officer to adapt to include social media as a crisis communication channel for information dispersal. Existing frameworks for the use of social media as a channel for crisis communications provide guidance for emergency management agencies across all levels of government but fail to account for the varying access to communication resources at the local level. Due to the differing access to communication resources and unique relationships with stakeholders at the local level, there is a need for guidance on how local emergency management agencies can use social media to disperse essential information. The proposed Communication Hub Framework utilizes local emergency management professionals’ relationships with key community stakeholders to aid in the distribution of essential information to community mem-bers via social media during a disaster.