The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and is freely available to read online. Presenting research on social media use in crisis and risk cases: a terrorist attack, a natural disaster and an infectious disease of international concern, this book investigates how social media plays a crucial role in mitigating or preventing crises.

The second edition of this vital text integrates theory, research, and application to orient readers to the latest thinking about the role of social media in crisis communication. Specific crisis arenas such as health, corporate, nonprofit, religious, political, and disaster are examined in depth, along with social media platforms and newer technology. Social Media and Crisis Communication, Second Edition provides a fresh look at the role of visual communication in social media and a more global review of social media and crisis communication literature. With an enhanced focus on the ethics section, a short communication overview piece, and case studies for each area of application, it is practical for use in a variety of learning settings. A must-read for scholars, advanced students, and practitioners who wish to stay on the leading edge of research, this book will appeal to those in public relations, strategic communications, corporate communications, government and NGO communications, and emergency and disaster response.

A resource for public officials on the basic tenets of effective communications generally and on working with the news media specifically. Focuses on providing public officials with a brief orientation and perspective on the media and how they think and work, and on the public as the end-recipient of info.; concise presentations of techniques for responding to and cooperating with the media in conveying info. and delivering messages, before, during, and after a public health crisis; a practical guide to the tools of the trade of media relations and public communications; and strategies and tactics for addressing the probable opportunities and the possible challenges that are likely to arise as a consequence of such communication initiatives. Ill.

Risk and Crisis Communication addresses how the interaction between organizations and their stakeholders manifests during a risk or crisis situation.Littlefield and Sellnow contend that when best practices are considered, there are certain tensions to which an organization responds. These tensions are similar to those experienced among individuals when managing their relationships. As such, Littlefield and Sellnow apply an interpersonal theory, known as relational dialectics (RDT), to risk and crisis communication and examine the outcome from the vantage point of the officials and the public. Previous research has focused on top-down, sender-oriented communication to evaluate the effectiveness of particular strategies used by spokespeople to repair public image or relay an apology. In contrast, Littlefield and Sellnow’s approach relies on culture-centeredness and suggests how cultural elements may have influenced the kinds of tensions each organization faced. Risk and Crisis Communication exemplifies the use of RDT through seven case studies, each focusing on one of the tensions, making it of interest to both scholars and organizational leaders.

The go-to guide for learning what to say and how to say it In this climate of near constant streams of media messages, organizations need to know how to effectively communicate risks to their audiences and what to say when a crisis strikes. Risk and Crisis Communications: Methods and Messages is designed to help organizations understand the essential components of communicating about risks during a crisis, and it carves out a role for safety health and environmental (SH&E) professionals in the process. Covering common theoretical concepts and explaining the positions of noted experts in the field such as Peter Sandman and Vincent Covello, the book provides a fundamental understanding of the process behind crafting effective messages for a variety of different situations and explains the consequences of saying the wrong thing to an emotional audience. Incorporating numerous case studies—including the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and the 2010 H1N1 pandemic—it shows how messages can change the way an audience perceives an event and how they react to it, clearly demonstrating how ineffective messages can create untold difficulties for an organization's public image. Savvy SH&E professionals know that their role in helping to craft risk and crisis messages as well as assisting in the execution of risk communication plans provides a critical path to becoming more valuable members of their organizations. Risk and Crisis Communications: Methods and Messages provides invaluable assistance in helping SH&E professionals add value to their organization.

The contemporary world is characterized by the massive use of digital communication platforms and services that allow people to stay in touch with each other and their organizations. On the other hand, it is also a world with great challenges in terms of crisis, disaster, and emergency situations of various kinds. Thus, it is crucial to understand the role of digital platforms/services in the context of crisis, disaster, and emergency situations. Digital Services in Crisis, Disaster, and Emergency Situations presents recent studies on crisis, disaster, and emergency situations in which digital technologies are considered as a key mediator. Featuring multi- and interdisciplinary research findings, this comprehensive reference work highlights the relevance of society’s digitization and its usefulness and contribution to the different phases and types of risk scenarios. Thus, the book investigates the design of digital services that are specifically developed for use in crisis situations and examines services such as online social networks that can be used for communication purposes in emergency events. Highlighting themes that include crisis management communication, risk monitoring, digital crisis intervention, and smartphone applications, this book is of particular use to governments, institutions, corporations, and professionals who deal with crisis, disaster, and emergency scenarios, as well as researchers, academicians, and students working in fields such as communications, multimedia, sociology, political science, and engineering.

This book presents a summary of the Workshop on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Current Knowledge and Research Gaps, held April 13 and 14, 2010, in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the National Research Council's Committee on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings on Mobile Devices: Current Knowledge and Research Needs. The workshop was structured to gather inputs and insights from social science researchers, technologists, emergency management professionals, and other experts knowledgeable about how the public responds to alerts and warnings, focusing specifically on how the public responds to mobile alerting.

Risk communication is crucial to building community resilience and reducing risk from extreme events. True community resilience involves accurate and timely dissemination of risk information to stakeholders. This book examines the policy and science of risk communication in the digital era. Themes include public awareness of risk and public participation in risk communication and resilience building. The first half of the book focuses on conceptual frameworks, components, and the role of citizens in risk communication. The second half examines the role of risk communication in resilience building and provides an overview of some of its challenges in the era of social media. This book looks at the effectiveness of risk communication in socially and culturally diverse communities in the developed and developing world. The interdisciplinary approach bridges academic research and applied policy action. Contributions from Latin America and Asia provide insight into global risk communication at a time when digital technologies have rapidly transformed conventional communication approaches. This book will be of critical interest to policy makers, academicians, and researchers, and will be a valuable reference source for university courses that focus on emergency management, risk communication, and resilience.

Following an earlier NRC workshop on public response to alerts and warnings delivered to mobile devices, a related workshop was held on February 28 and 29, 2012 to look at the role of social media in disaster response. This was one of the first workshops convened to look systematically at the use of social media for alerts and warnings-an event that brought together social science researchers, technologists, emergency management professionals, and other experts on how the public and emergency managers use social media in disasters.In addition to exploring how officials monitor social media, as well as the resulting privacy considerations, the workshop focused on such topics as: what is known about how the public responds to alerts and warnings; the implications of what is known about such public responses for the use of social media to provide alerts and warnings to the public; and approaches to enhancing the situational awareness of emergency managers. Public Response to Alerts and Warnings Using Social Media: Report of a Workshop on Current Knowledge and Research Gaps summarizes presentations made by invited speakers, other remarks by workshop participants, and discussions during parallel breakout sessions. It also points to potential topics for future research, as well as possible areas for future research investment, and it describes some of the challenges facing disaster managers who are seeking to incorporate social media into regular practice.

"During public health emergencies, people need to know what health risks they face, and what actions they can take to protect their health and lives. Accurate information provided early, often, and in languages and channels that people understand, trust and use, enables individuals to make choices and take actions to protect themselves, their families and communities from threatening health hazards." -- Publisher's description.