Public Response to Alerts and Warnings Using Social Media: Report of a Workshop on Current Knowledge and Research Gaps

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 warningsan 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.

• Front Matter
• 1 Fundamentals of Alerts, Warnings, and Social Media
• 2 Current Uses of Social Media in Emergencies
• 3 Dynamics of Social Media
• 4 Credibility, Authenticity, and Reputation
• 5 Privacy and Legal Challenges with the Use of Social Media
• 6 Research Gaps and Implementation Challenges
• Appendixes
• Appendix A: Workshop Agenda
• Appendix B: Biosketches of Workshop Speakers
• Appendix C: Biosketches of Committee and Staff Members