Emergency preparedness collaboration on Twitter

Area of Science:

• Emergency Management
• Public Administration
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Intergovernmental collaboration is vital for effective disaster management, especially during large-scale events.
• While social media use by agencies in disasters is studied, its role in intergovernmental collaboration remains under-examined.
• Existing research has not focused on social media's utility during the preparedness and planning phases of emergency management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the use of social media platforms for establishing and maintaining intergovernmental collaboration among emergency management agencies.
• To specifically investigate social media's role during the preparedness and planning stages of emergency management.
• To identify the types of intergovernmental connections made via social media, categorized by topic, governance level, and affiliation.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative observational analysis was employed to study social media interactions.
• Coding analysis was used to categorize the identified connections based on topic, governance level, and affiliation.
• The study examined connections made on social media platforms and compared them against the local emergency operations plan (LEOP).

Main Results:

• Over 50% of intergovernmental connections identified were established on Twitter.
• A significant portion of these Twitter-based connections were not documented in the current local emergency operations plan (LEOP).
• Public education information emerged as the most popular topic for initiating online intergovernmental connections.

Conclusions:

• Social media, especially Twitter, offers a valuable, often undocumented, channel for intergovernmental collaboration in emergency management.
• Emergency management practitioners can leverage these findings to develop social media strategies that enhance interagency connections.
• Integrating online collaboration insights into formal emergency operations plans can strengthen overall disaster preparedness and response capabilities.