DISASTERSIn Disasters, People Are Abandoning Official Info for Social Media. How to Know What to Trust
In an emergency, where do you turn to find out what’s going on and what you should do to stay safe? The rise of social media has seen community groups, volunteers and non-government organizations nudging out official channels. While these informal sources often provide faster, more local information, they may also be less reliable than government sources.
In an emergency, where do you turn to find out what’s going on and what you should do to stay safe?
Traditionally, government agencies have been the “go-to” sources of information in events such as floods and bushfires, as well as health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the rise of social media has seen community groups, volunteers and non-government organizations nudging out official channels. While these informal sources often provide faster, more local information, they may also be less reliable than government sources.
So what should you do in an emergency? Here are some tips for how to prepare – and how to decide who to trust when the need arises.
Information Overload
The number of sources of information we can access is growing all the time. This leads to higher information load and lower quality of shared information.
With so many sources of information there is also the possibility of contradictory social media messaging by government and other actors, as we have seen during COVID-19. For emergency planners, this increases complexity and can lead to unpredictable behaviors by citizens who may not be responding to relevant advice or even accurate warnings.
For their part, citizens are demanding more and more information that matches their needs. Citizens clearly find value from local information sources.
Getting Warnings Right?
Our research shows citizens rely heavily on social media information. During an emergency or extreme weather event 55% of surveyed social media users reported they would spend more time on social media, and 88% expected to use social media more for future emergencies.
Many people are switching off from official warnings because they find them hard to understand, or may feel there are too many of them. It may be that they have seen too many situations where the warnings do not affect them - “the boy who cried wolf”. The bottom line is people want answers to immediate questions such as “How does this affect me right now?”
Eroding Control
On the flip side, government agencies also find social media hard to manage. In an emergency, they may not have the resources to keep up with the influx of comments and posts.
These shifts have raised concerns that greater use of social media erodes the established command-and-control information approach that has traditionally been vital to ensuring consistency in emergencies.
The information space is likely to become even more cluttered as extreme weather events become more frequent and begin to overlap.
