Post by: Kim Stephens
This is a very short post to alert my readers to a great resource: “Social Media Use During Disasters: A Review of the Knowledge Base and Gaps” published December 12, 2012. Interestingly, despite this recent publishing date, the authors were even able to include some findings on the use of social media during Hurricane Sandy.
The report was done by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism: A Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence, based at the University of Maryland with support from the Science and Technology Directorate of DHS. The authors are Julia Daisy Fraustino, Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland; Brooke Liu, Associate Professor and START Affiliated Faculty Member at the University of Maryland; and Yan Jin, Associate Professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University.
In an interview with the authors, published on START’S website, they explain their overarching goal for writing the report:
“We hope this report can serve as a map for policy makers and emergency managers as they navigate disaster communication decisions,” said Brooke Fisher Liu, START researcher and Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland. “We sought to provide a summary of what is currently known so decision makers don’t have to risk relying on intuition alone or inaccurate information.”
For those of you who are developing training materials, the content could provide very good sourced and referenced background information. Let me know what you found the most interesting.
idisaster 2.0 
This is a meaningful contribution to literature relative to social media and disaster response. Thanks for sharing this!
Kim, thanks so much for sharing. As I get toward the finish line of my thesis on #smem this might help me with a few hurdles. I appreciate your diligence and attention to the topic.