Engage and Mobilize! Understanding Evolving Patterns of Social Media Usage in Emergency Management

The work of Emergency Management (EM) agencies requires timely collection of relevant data to inform decision-making for operations and public communication before, during, and after a disaster. However, the limited human resources available to deploy for field data collection is a persistent problem for EM agencies. Thus, over the last decade, many of these agencies have started leveraging social media as a supplemental data source and a new venue to engage with the public. Such uses present both opportunities and challenges. While prior research has analyzed the potential benefits and attitudes of practitioners and the public when leveraging social media during disasters, a gap exists in the critical analysis of the actual practices and uses of social media among EM agencies, across both geographical regions and phases of the EM lifecycle - typically mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. In this paper, we conduct a mixed-method analysis to update and fill this gap on how EM practitioners in the U.S. and Europe use social media, building on a survey study of about 150 professionals and a follow-up interview study with 11 participants. The results indicate that using social media is no longer a non-traditional practice in operational and informational processes for the decision-making of EM agencies working at both the local level (e.g., county or town) and non-local level (e.g., state/province, federal/national) for emergency management. Especially, the practitioners affiliated with agencies working at the local level have a very high perceived value of social media for situational awareness (e.g., analyzing disaster extent and impact) and public communication (e.g., disseminating timely information and correcting errors in crisis coverage). Further, practitioners now engage with the public during the preparedness phase to mobilize them during the response phase. We present a model to understand the current practices of communication between agencies and the public, as well as among practitioners while leveraging social media. We also discuss novel challenges, including public fragmentation caused by the increasing use of multiple social media platforms, information integrity, and social listening expectations. We conclude with the policy, technological, and socio-technical needs to design future social media analytics systems to support the work of EM agencies in such communication.