D6.1. & D6.2. Guidelines for the use of new media in crisis situations

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The current document provides the final guidelines for the Contribution of Social Media in Crisis Management (COSMIC) project. The guidelines aim to enhance the safety and security of citizens by supporting both citizens, and public authorities, in their use of social media to complement their crisis management efforts.

The increased use of social media, in both day-to-day situations and during crisis situations has led to new opportunities with regard to crisis management. Within the current guidelines we refer to social media applications including: social networking sites, crowdsourcing applications, web-based tools and mobile applications where social media related techniques are incorporated. Advances in the use of these tools have led to barriers and challenges for the ‘better use’ of these tools by citizens and public organisations alike. Consequently, the COSMIC project has sought to support the ‘best use’ of social media during crises in a responsible and effective manner.

To do so, COSMIC has developed a set of key principles, what we refer to as ‘AID’, to be followed:

• Acknowledging the fact that civil society can be trusted;
• Increasing the ability of civil society to take responsibility for further guarding its own well-being;
• Developing the capacities of public authorities for adapting to social media use by civil society.

In accordance with the AID principles the COSMIC guidelines are split into two sets of tips and tricks for public authorities and for members of the public. By public authorities we mean those governmental organizations that carry a prime responsibility for crisis management as well as those organisations that do not focus on crisis management, but that have a responsibility for crisis management in their own domain (e.g., Civil Society Organisations). Although not within the focus of this first set of tips and tricks, other organizations that find themselves involved in crisis management activities will be able to use these tips and tricks as well. The second set of tips and tricks applies to civil society; citizens.

The central starting point for the tips and tricks for public authorities is that they should adapt to existing social media use in civil society. Furthermore, they should be aware of avoiding the temptation to ‘reinvent the wheel’. The following structure is used to present the tips and tricks:

Pre-Crisis - Develop a social media policy and strategy.
Crisis - Monitor and adapt to emergent initiatives on social media.
Post-Crisis - Direct people to aftercare initiatives and seek feedback.

The central starting point for the tips and tricks for citizens is the fact that civil society can be trusted during crises. Past crises have shown that citizens are self-resilient and undertake different kind of activities to aid themselves and others in crisis situations. The COSMIC tips and tricks are formulated to encompass these findings so that citizens can gain insight in how to use social media during crises in a responsible and effective way. The following structure is used to present the tips and tricks for citizens in the different roles they can have:

Preparing - Participate in disaster education and training programmes
Seeking aid - Ask for help and disclose your location.
Seeking information - Verify information and ensure information is trustworthy.
Providing aid - Participate in the flow of information and the sense making of data.
Mobilizing - Create and stimulate networks.
Recording and sharing - Ensure a broad scope and consider your communication venue.

The guidelines are based on information and knowledge collected and presented throughout the COSMIC project. The data on crises, and the use of social media therein, has been collected through a combination of methods such as desk-based research, content analysis, literature reviews, case studies and surveys. Furthermore various stakeholders, such as emergency response crews, law enforcement representatives, citizen journalists, and social activists have been engaged with throughout the COSMIC project to provide their feedback on the (working) documents, providing a review of the content and the relevance of the results.