Wahl S – PCST Network

Author: Stefanie Wahl – Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany

Co-authors:
Karolin Bauer – Freie Universitaet Berlin
Lars Gerhold – Freie Universitaet Berlin

During natural disasters such as floodings or storm events, emergency management agencies are required to inform the public about the ongoing situation (Beneito-Montagut et al., 2013). This is ideally based on a communication concept or strategy that fits public’s information needs and increases people’s participation during an event (Alexander, 2014). Besides television and radio, social media technologies can serve as an effective tool to share situation reports, but also to receive useful information from people in the affected area (Starbird et al., 2010; Vieweg et al., 2010). Nevertheless, it is yet not known what concepts are best suited to communicate situation reports to the public and vice versa (Beneito-Montagut et al., 2013).

In order to explore existing concepts, good practices as well as possible constraints for European emergency management agencies when exchanging situation reports with the public during disaster events, we thus ask:

What concepts do European public authorities use for public communication of situation reports?
How does the public participate in this communication?
What challenges do arise, when providing and receiving situation reports to or from the public?

To answer these questions, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with crisis communications experts of emergency management agencies (e.g. ministries, fire brigades, police, security regions) in Austria (n = 4), France (n = 2), Denmark (n = 3), Italy (n = 4), the Netherlands (n = 4), Poland (n = 4) and the United Kingdom (n = 3) in 2017. Interviews were analyzed using an inductive-deductive coding scheme (Mayring, 2000).

By comparing different communication concepts, we will point out differences and similarities between all seven countries, e.g. how authorities handle respectively verify information about the situation they have received from the public. Based on our findings, we will discuss recommendations for public communication during natural disaster events.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Stefanie Wahl – Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany

Co-authors:
Lars Gerhold – Freie Universitaet Berlin
Thomas Kox – Freie Universitaet Berlin

When managing natural disasters such as hurricanes, national hydro-meteorological services and/or emergency management agencies (referred to as EMAs) need to warn and inform the public about emerging or ongoing situations (Beneito-Montagut et al., 2013). Especially social-media technologies such as Twitter are effective tools to quickly share information about the actual situation (Alexander, 2014; Starbird et al., 2010). Nevertheless, EMAs deal with different kinds of uncertainties when communicating with the public, including aspects of non-knowledge or stochastic variability (NRC, 2006). Possible examples are hurricane pathways, flooded areas or public response actions. Addressing these different kinds of uncertain information during extreme weather situations contributes to disaster management efforts and strengthens EMA’s credibility (Hughes & Chauhan, 2015).

Therefore we ask in this paper how EMAs handle uncertain information in such situations as part of their risk and crisis communication strategies. Our analysis is based on a qualitative content analysis of EMA crisis communication in Florida during hurricane “Irma” using Twitter data. “Irma” was a category 5 hurricane which affected the Caribbean and Southern USA in 2017 – one of the most powerful hurricanes of recent years (NOAA, 2017).

Results show that EMAs address the issue of uncertainties in weather forecasts by giving process information, i.e. constantly updating and clarifying the ongoing situation. Accordingly, some tweets include separate timestamps or emphasize that the given information is preliminary. Additionally they use different visuals to represent uncertainty (e.g. infographics, maps, gifs), e.g. regarding hurricane pathways as well as potentially affected areas and populations. Still, addressing uncertainties remains challenging for some public authorities.

Based on our findings, we will discuss and develop recommendations to further improve crisis communication efforts of authorities in extreme weather events.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual talk
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Communicating with the public during natural disasters in Europe

Tweeting uncertainty during Hurricane Irma

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