Social media and disaster communication: A case study of Cyclone Winston
Keywords:
crisis response, Cyclone Winston, cyclones, Fiji, disaster communication, Pacific Islands, social media
Abstract
This article presents an analysis of how social media was used during Tropical Cyclone Winston, the strongest recorded tropical storm that left a wake of destruction and devastation in Fiji during February 2016. Social media is increasingly being used in crises and disasters as an alternative form of communication. Social media use in crisis communication varies according to the context, the disaster and the maturity of social media use. Fiji’s experience during TC Winston contributes to the growing literature as it shows how social media was used during each stage of a disaster in a developing country. The article finds that before the cyclone, people used social media to share information about the cyclone and to be informed about the cyclone. During the cyclone, individuals used social media to share their experiences with some citizens capturing the cyclone as it happened and even one citizen live-tweeted her ordeal during the cyclone. Finally, following the cyclone, the hashtag #StrongerThanWinston was coined as a rallying point to bolster a sense of national solidarity.
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References
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Veil, S. R., Buehner, T., & Palenchar, M. J. (2011). A work‐in‐process literature review: Incorporating social media in risk and crisis communication. Journal of contingencies and crisis management, 19(2), 110-122.
Watson, A. (2012). Tsunami alert: The mobile phone difference The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 27(4), 46-50.
Wesley-Smith, T., & Porter, E. A. (2010). China in Oceania: Reshaping the Pacific? (Vol. 1): Berghahn Books.
Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information search. Tourism management, 31(2), 179-188.
Yila, O., Weber, E., & Neef, A. (2013). The role of social capital in post-llood response and recovery among downstream communities of the Ba River, Western Viti Levu, Fiji Islands. In risks and conflicts: Local responses to natural disasters (pp. 79-107). UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Australian Government. (2017). Tropical Cyclone Winston - Relief and Response. Retrieved from http://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/investment-priorities/building-resilience/humanitarian-preparedness-and-response/tc-winston/pages/default.aspx
Bird, D., Ling, M., & Haynes, K. (2012). Flooding Facebook-the use of social media during the Queensland and Victorian floods. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, The, 27(1), 27.
Bruns, A., Burgess, J. E., Crawford, K., & Shaw, F. (2012). # qldfloods and@ QPSMedia: Crisis communication on Twitter in the 2011 south east Queensland floods.
Cox, J., Finau, G., Kant, R.,Titifanue, J., Tarai, J. (2018). Disaster, divine judgement and original sin: Christian interpretations of Tropical Cyclone Winston and climate change in Fiji. The Contemporary Pacific, Forthcoming.
Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
Green, M. (2013). Persona Non Grata: Breaking the Bond: Fiji and New Zealand, 2004-2007: Dunmore Publishing.
Houston, J. B., Hawthorne, J., Perreault, M. F., Park, E. H., Goldstein Hode, M., Halliwell, McElderry, J. A. (2015). Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research. Disasters, 39(1), 1-22.
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68.
Keim, M. E., & Noji, E. (2011). Emergent use of social media: a new age of opportunity for disaster resilience. American Journal of Disaster Medicine, 6(1), 47-54.
Lachlan, K. A., Spence, P. R., Lin, X., Najarian, K., & Del Greco, M. (2016). Social media and crisis management: CERC, search strategies, and Twitter content. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 647-652.
Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise social media: Definition, history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organisations. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19.
NDMO Fiji (2016). Post-Disaster Needs Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ndmo.gov.fj/images/AllDisasterReports/Post-Disaster-Needs-Assessments-CYCLONE-WINSTON-Fiji-2016-Online-Version.pdf
New Zealand Government. (2016). New Zealand Medical Assistance Team deployment to Fiji. Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/fiji/new-zealand-medical-assistance-team-deployment-fiji
Obar, J. A., & Wildman, S. S. (2015). Social media definition and the governance challenge: An introduction to the special issue.
Palen, L., & Liu, S. B. (2007). Citizen communications in crisis: anticipating a future of ICT-supported public participation. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems.
Radio New Zealand. (2016, February 25). Fiji govt estimates Winston damage US$460 million. Retrieved from https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/297447/fiji-govt-estimates-winston-damage-us$460-million
Robie, D. (2014). ‘Carbon colonialism’: Pacific environmental risk, media credibility and a deliberative perspective. Pacific Journalism Review, 20(2), 59-75.
Robie, D., & Chand, S. (2017). Bearing Witness 2016: A Fiji climate change journalism case study. Pacific Journalism Review, 23(1), 186.
Spyksma, H. (2017). Unintentional journalists: The role of advocacy group 350 in filling a news gap for reporting from the Pacific region. Journalism Studies, 1-21.
Sutton, J. N., Palen, L., & Shklovski, I. (2008). Backchannels on the front lines: Emergency uses of social media in the 2007 Southern California Wildfires: University of Colorado.
Takahashi, B., Tandoc, E. C., & Carmichael, C. (2015). Communicating on Twitter during a disaster: An analysis of tweets during Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Computers in Human Behavior, 50, 392-398.
Tarte, S. (2011). Australia and the Pacific Islands: a loss of focus or a loss of direction? Paper presented at the East Asia Forum website.
Totifanue, J., tarai, J., Kant, R., & Finau, G. (2017). Climate change advocacy in the Pacific: The role of information and communication technologies. Pacific Journalism Review, 23(1), 133.
Veil, S. R., Buehner, T., & Palenchar, M. J. (2011). A work‐in‐process literature review: Incorporating social media in risk and crisis communication. Journal of contingencies and crisis management, 19(2), 110-122.
Watson, A. (2012). Tsunami alert: The mobile phone difference The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 27(4), 46-50.
Wesley-Smith, T., & Porter, E. A. (2010). China in Oceania: Reshaping the Pacific? (Vol. 1): Berghahn Books.
Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information search. Tourism management, 31(2), 179-188.
Yila, O., Weber, E., & Neef, A. (2013). The role of social capital in post-llood response and recovery among downstream communities of the Ba River, Western Viti Levu, Fiji Islands. In risks and conflicts: Local responses to natural disasters (pp. 79-107). UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Published
17-07-2018
How to Cite
Finau, G., Cox, J., Tarai, J., Kant, R., Varea, R., & Titifanue, J. (2018). Social media and disaster communication: A case study of Cyclone Winston. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 24(1), 123-137. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v24i1.400
Section
Articles (Themed)
Copyright (c) 2018 Glen Finau, John Cox, Jope Tarai, Romitesh Kant, Renata Varea, Jason Titifanue
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
