Online Social Media in Crisis Events

As social media--which includes blogs, social networking environments, person-to-person and broadcast messaging, and other Web 2.0 applications--becomes more pervasive, their use has significant implications for emergency management practice and policy. Information and communication technology (ICT) enables people--disaster survivors, curious observers, and those who wish to help victims--to connect to one another and to participate in events, including seeking and providing information peer-to-peer. In this article, the author investigated the use of social media during and after the Virginia Tech shootings and the 2007 Southern California wildfires. The author also has examined the characteristics of online "social convergence" across recent crisis events. (Contains 5 endnotes.)