D4.2. Report on citizen involvement and ethics

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In Task 4.2, entitled “Citizens’ Involvement and Ethics”, COSMIC seeks to examine the opportunities, risks (threats), and ethical issues that are brought about by utilization of new media technologies during crises. Additionally, through this task, COSMIC aims to detail the potential consequences, for individuals and the society, of the threats and ethical issues that arise from utilization of new media technologies during crisis.

With respect to the opportunities that new media technologies present in crisis management, this report (chapter 2) argues that such technologies can potentially enhance mobilization of and coordination among various stakeholders during a crisis. The report also argues that realization of this potential hinge on the extent to which new media technologies are consistently and widely adopted during emergencies. Namely, the report recommends,

• Development of industry efforts oriented towards increasing the interoperability of new media solutions for emergency response.
• Increasing the extent to which technological solutions to crisis management trickle down to local response units and the public by prioritizing the development of technology solutions that are compatible with existing consumer-grade devices, such as smart phones or tablets.
• Enhancing stakeholders’ understanding of the mechanisms through which use of new media technologies can enhance community resilience.

Regarding the threats that the use of new media technologies during crises may bring to various stakeholders, this report (chapter 3), focuses on three types of threats. First the report discusses threats to security of citizens that may result from their being recorded in ways that lead to invasion of their privacy and exposure of their identity. Second, the report outlines how citizen journalists may put themselves in harm’s way while trying to capture a noteworthy moment during a crisis. Third, the report argues that sharing sensitive information about tactical choices made by response units may threaten not only effectiveness of emergency response efforts but also the safety of the responders. In this light, COSMIC’s recommendations emphasize two related goals:

• More education and training of stakeholders, including citizens, in order to increase awareness of threats created by sharing information in online networks, and awareness of methods that can be used to protect the privacy and physical safety of individuals, as victims, witnesses, and journalists, involved in a crisis.
• Making sure that stakeholders, and particularly mass and online media outlets, develop universally accepted guidelines that prevent the publication or transmission of content that puts individuals and the public at risk.

The chapter on ethical concerns that arise from utilization of new media technologies for information dissemination during crises (chapter 4) focuses on several related issues. First, using two brief case studies from Istanbul (one from 1955 and one from 2013), we illustrate how the use of mass media and/or social media to exploit public’s sentiments at times of crisis may lead to increased animosity within a society. Second, using a case from Virginia Tech Shootings, we discuss how a rush for providing coverage of an emergency may create ethical problems when journalists (or citizen journalists) exploit their position to quickly reach conclusions about the events. Third, we discuss censorship and surveillance as mechanisms that may impede the ability of citizens to share and have access to information. Fourth, we further extend the discussions provided in the previous sections of chapter 4 to provide an indepth focus on two ethical issues concerning citizen journalism: 1) reliability of information and 2) confidentiality of news sources.

The discussion of these ethical issues concerning the use of new media technologies for information dissemination at times of crisis underlines several important measures that need to be taken:

• Promotion of the widespread use of tools that can help individuals counter surveillance and bypass censorship. This can be achieved by standardizing and simplifying such tools for the general public.
• Adoption of detailed verification practices both before disseminating information and while consuming it.
• Dissemination of information verification guidelines to the wider public.
• Enhancing collaboration between citizen journalists and traditional journalism institutions to improve information verification processes for citizen journalists.
• Developing policies that will help recognize citizen journalism as a form of journalism that is entitled to privileges, such as confidentiality of sources, that professional journalists are entitled to.

Concerning the potential consequences of the threats and ethical issues discussed in the report, chapter 5 of the report focuses on three main topics. First, we discuss how misinformation and rumours increase the level of panic in public during times of crisis. This may, in turn, increase political and economic volatility as well as threatening the safety of citizens. Second, we focus on implications of lateral surveillance and vigilante activities and argue that such activities will disproportionately harm certain segments of the population, like racial minorities. Third, we detail the potential implications of utilization of social media, which enhance individuals’ ability to engage in selective exposure. Namely, we describe how use of social media may contribute to the increased polarization of factions within a society.

In the light of these discussions regarding the implications of the ethical issues and threats related to use of new media technologies during crises, we recommend the following:

• Information provided by formal sources regarding the progress that is being made about an incident and suggestions about how the public may protect themselves from a potential risk may help mitigate the adverse impact of rumours.
• Particularly at times of political conflicts, increasing the availability of media outlets that can play a mediating role between different factions is a necessary condition for reducing polarization in a given society.