Social media in disaster communication: A case study of strategies, barriers, and ethical implications

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1967
• Date: 01 February 2020
• Author: Shannon A. Bowen,Alessandro Lovari
• Published date: 01 February 2020

ACADEMIC PAPER

Social media in disaster communication: A case study of

strategies, barriers, and ethical implications

Alessandro Lovari

1

|Shannon A. Bowen

2

1

Department of Pedagogy, Psychology,

Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

2

School of Journalism and Mass

Communications, University of South Carolina,

Columbia, South Carolina

Correspondence

Alessandro Lovari, Department of Pedagogy,

Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari,

Cagliari, Italy.

Email: alessandro.lovari@unica.it

Funding information

Mary Caldwell International Grant

The manuscript investigates how social media were used during a flood disaster man-

aged by public affairs officers. We conducted high‐level “elite”interviews with the

state's top emergency managers about their social media policies, practices, and use

in both media relations and citizen communication. We explored the strategies and

communication models implemented, challenges and barriers for effective adoption

of these platforms, and ethical implications in the use social media during natural

disasters. The study investigates gaps between theories and practice, adopting a

multidisciplinary perspective that involves public relations, social media studies,

government/public affairs, and public sector communication. Recommendations are

offered to improve disaster communication via social media including dedicated staff

and resources, evaluation, symmetry, and the use of ethical communication to quell

rumors or misinformation during a disaster.

1|INTRODUCTION

Social media has reframed communication as rapidly emerging, with-

out geographic boundaries, and interactive on both a societal and indi-

vidual scale. Rapid communication is a challenge to manage, and that

challenge is exacerbated in the most exigent situations: emergencies

and disasters to be managed by public sector organizations (PSOs)

and by public affairs specialists (Bowen, Rawlins, & Martin, 2019).

Social media serves as a powerful tool for emergency management

and disaster relief in many recent emergency situations worldwide, such

as Hurricanes Sandy and Harvey in the United States, the tsunami in

Japan, earthquakes in Italy and Chile, and the Queensland floods in

Australia. We focus on the role of social media as used by government

agencies and PSOs (i.e., public departments, officials, and other

government agencies) as part of their emergency and disaster response.

This case study examines a disaster in which eleven trillion gal-

lons of water fell in South Carolina (SC), United States, causing mas-

sive flooding in residential areas; results included fatalities, massive

infrastructure damage including road and bridge collapses, evacua-

tions, and prolonged loss of energy in October 2015. The death toll

was 17 and property damage totaled $1.2 billion. Social media took a

prominent place during the flood in interactions between PSOs,

media, and citizens. Messages were disseminated on social media

to inform news media and citizens, and to coordinate disaster

operations.

Emergency communication and disaster response is not optional

for elected officials, organizations, and government entities at every

level: national, state, county, and city. In the United States, there were

137 major disasters in 2017 and 79 in 2018's hurricane season (FEMA,

2018). The flood in SC was only one of the major disasters in 2015 but

offers a unique opportunity to examine disaster response and social

media use from the perspective of the communication function in

numerous government entities with high‐level (elite) public affairs offi-

cers (PAOs). We examined social media around this disaster from a

perspective of crisis management (Coombs, 2019) and public relations

(Grunig & Hunt, 1984), in addition to research on digital impact in

PSOs (Canel & Luoma‐aho, 2019; Falco & Kleinhans, 2018), focusing

on the gaps and misalignments between theory and practice.

2|PUBLIC RELATIONS AND CRISIS

MANAGEMENT

Crisis management is the implementation of a response to an issue

that has become reality such as a natural disaster, accident, or man‐

made crisis (Coombs, 2014; Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 2003). Crisis

Received: 10 April 2019 Accepted: 24 April 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1967

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e1967.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1967

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of9