This presentation looks at crisis communication during TC Ita.

1. The Roles and Self-Definitions of
Key Crisis Communication Organisations
in a Natural Disaster
Emma Potter (PhD Candidate), Judith Newton (MA Research Candidate)
Associate Professor Jean Burgess, Professor Axel Bruns – QUT, Kelvin Grove

2. BACKGROUND
• Case study: Tropical Cyclone Ita, April 2014.
– Queensland Fire and Emergency Services– Industry
partner, ARC Linkage Project (Social media in times of
crisis: learning from recent natural disasters to improve
future strategies)
• Roles and role perceptions of key organisations.
• Mixed-methods approach and multiple data sources.
• Preliminary analysis – ABC Far North and QFES. Why?

3. LOCAL ABC RADIO STATION
• Official Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
Station
• Based in Cairns, broadcasting to Far North Queensland
• Local news and stories only
• Twitter
 Joined February 2009
 5,644 followers
• Facebook
 Joined April 2010
 13,194 likes
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Far_North; https://www.facebook.com/abcfarnorth/info?ref=page_internal; https://twitter.com/ABCFarNorth

4. QUEENSLAND FIRE &
EMERGENCY SERVICES
• Queensland Government Agency
• News from urban fire and rescue crews, rural fire crews
and the State Emergency Service
• Releases information when there is a public safety issue,
there is public interest in the matter or there is a need to
seek information from the public
• Twitter
 Joined June 2011
 15,000 followers
• Facebook
 Joined June 2011
 127,476 likes
Sources: https://www.facebook.com/QldFireandRescueService/info; https://twitter.com/QldFES; https://www.fire.qld.gov.au

5. Traditional & Social
Media Analysis

6. TRADITIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE
• Aim to identify which organisations and individuals are
privileged as sources in mainstream news media
coverage
• Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre and ProQuest
news databases
• Retrieved news stories containing ‘cyclone’ and ‘Ita’ from
newspapers published from 1 April to 16 April 2014
• Looking for organisations being treated as sources of
information and commentary, not just mentions
• 200 of 800 non-ABC articles coded; 46 of 46 ABC
articles

7. AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND & OTHER
PACIFIC REGION NEWSPAPER REPORTS
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Brisbane Markets
Cairns Mayor Bob Manning
Clive Palmer
Cook Shire Council CEO Stephen Wilson
Growcom
National Weather Service (PNG)
QFES Commissioner Lee Johnson
Queensland's Community Recovery Minister David Crisafulli
Canegrowers
Cairns authorities
Hope Vale Mayor Greg McLean
James Cook University researchers
Typhoon Warning Centre
Emergency Services Minister Jack Dempsey
ABC
None
Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott
Local residents
Premier
Bureau of Meteorology

8. ABC NEWS REPORTS
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
SES
Queensland Disaster Recovery Coordinator
Clive Palmer
GrowCom
Hinchinbrook Shire Mayor Rodger Bow
Police
Queensland Environment Dept
Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott
Local residents
Queensland Rail
Premier
Bureau of Meteorology

9. TWITTER – MOST VISIBLE ACCOUNTS
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
ABCFarNorth
abcnews
ABCemergency
9NewsBrisbane
theqldpremier
Queensland
QldFES
tennewsqld
QPSmedia
7NewsBrisbane
9NewsAUS
JoshBavas
Chris_Campey
sharniekim
PeterDoherty7
MattWordsworth
ABCNews24
sjsmail
TheTodayShow
NOAA
shelleymlloyd
cycloneupdate
EAtkinson7
madcowsdisease
qldhealthnews
612brisbane
QldAmbulance
Cyclone_Ita
HumanityRoad
ABCnorthqld
Sum of @replies received
Sum of retweets received
Sum of genuine @replies received

10. TWITTER – MOST ACTIVE ACCOUNTS
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
ABCFarNorth
ABCemergency
EclipseNq
9NewsBrisbane
geehall1
ABCnorthqld
612brisbane
shelleymlloyd
Australianwarni
FoxRn1
badjerry_1
madcowsdisease
9NewsAUS
7NewsBrisbane
tennewsqld
PeteDotAscian
Rdonair
UncleChilliMan
Qldaah
JezMans
Aline_Carr
Cyclone_Ita
QLDCairns
ABCTropical
CairnsNews
QldFES
cbemergency
NQFloodUpdate
AngelaMurphyTEN
QLDOnline
Sum of tweets
Sum of retweets
Sum of genuine @replies
Sum of original tweets
Sum of URLs

11. TWITTER CONTENT ANALYSIS
• Tweets captured using #tcita
• Content of tweets from QFES and ABC Far North coded using
thematic and purposive categories developed by Shaw,
Burgess, Bruns & Crawford (2013).
• Some minor adaptations to coding categories made
 Reintroduction of Rescue/Response/Recovery category
 Introduction of Engagement category
Source: SHAW, F., BURGESS, J., CRAWFORD, K., BRUNS, A.. Sharing news, making sense, saying thanks: Patterns of talk on Twitter
during the Queensland floods. Australian Journal of Communication, North America, 40, jul. 2013. Available at:
<http://www.austjourcomm.org/index.php/ajc/article/view/16/10>. Date accessed: 30 Sep. 2014.

12. COMPARISON OF TWITTER CONTENT –
ABC FAR NORTH & QFES

13. FACEBOOK – ABC FAR NORTH
• 180 posts, with 149 of
these posts containing
links to pages/photos
• Most shared (475 shares)
– photo of tree down &
warning
• Most liked (386 likes) –
like this page for cyclone
updates
• Most commented – (32
comments) photo of
water over road at Barron
Gorge

14. FACEBOOK – QFES
• 132 Posts, with 113 containing
links to pages (e.g. Local Shire
Councils, BOM cyclone
updates, QPS road closures)
• Most shared post (4543
shares) – Warning about Fake
SES calls (no link/photo)
• Most liked post (2426 likes) –
photo showing emergency
service personnel returning
home from TC Ita
• Most commented on post (539
comments)- Warning about
Fake SES calls (no link/photo)

15. FACEBOOK CONTENT ANALYSIS
• Captured Facebook data from key accounts - based on social media
activity during TC Ita or relevant accounts in geographic location (e.g.
Cook Shire Connect)
• Original data set for April 2014.
• Only those posts that related to TC Ita were coded.
• Facebook content coded again using thematic and purposive
categories developed by Shaw, Burgess, Bruns & Crawford (2013).
• Similar minor adaptations to coding categories made
 Reintroduction of Rescue/Response/Recovery category
 Introduction of Engagement category
• Further analysis and potential adaptions to coding categories will be
undertaken in relation to larger and more varied content in Facebook
posts vs. content in 140 character tweets
Source: SHAW, F., BURGESS, J., CRAWFORD, K., BRUNS, A.. Sharing news, making sense, saying thanks: Patterns of talk on Twitter during the Queensland floods. Australian Journal of Communication, North America, 40, jul. 2013.
Available at: <http://www.austjourcomm.org/index.php/ajc/article/view/16/10>.Date accessed: 30 Sep. 2014.

16. COMPARISON OF FACEBOOK CONTENT
ABC FAR NORTH & QFES

17. COMPARISON OF PERCENTAGE OF TWEETS
VS. FACEBOOK POSTS - ABC FAR NORTH

18. COMPARISON OF PERCENTAGE OF
TWEETS VS. FACEBOOK POSTS - QFES

19. PROMOTED VS DEMONSTRATED ROLES
ABC FAR NORTH - SUMMARY
• Most visible and active twitter account
• 53.8% of tweets being retweeted
• Second highest genuine @replies
• Twitter content – news media; situational information, advice
• 82.8% Facebook posts contain links with other information
sources
• Most liked post – like for cyclone updates
• Facebook content, multimedia, news media, situational
information
 LOCAL NEWS
 LOCAL STORIES

20. PROMOTED VS DEMONSTRATED ROLES
QFES - SUMMARY
• Most visible and active emergency service agency
• 90.4% of tweets being retweeted
• No genuine @replies
• Twitter content – Advice, Rescue/Response/Recovery, News
Media
• 85.6% of Facebook posts contain links to other information
sources
• Most liked post – photo emergency service personnel
• Facebook content – situational information, advice and
multimedia
 PUBLIC SAFETY ISSUES
 PUBLIC INTEREST

21. Interviews and
participant observation
Key findings

22. INTERVIEWS AND PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION – KEY FINDINGS
• Perceived role
“Our information gets delivered as it always does during events
because we have a very specific function which is warning the
community so our role doesn’t change. […] we discuss things with
those other agencies but in terms of what we put out or coordination
it’s, it’s you know we have our role and that’s what we stick to
[…]
It’s basically…written in the Queensland Disaster Management
arrangements you know and the legislation about who does what.
…For want of a better word Police manage the response to the
disaster while emergency management which is now QFES provide
the warnings to the community.
– Media director

23. INTERVIEWS AND PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION – KEY FINDINGS
• Ownership of space and information
“You can tweet stuff but it’s nicer to attribute it to the agency that
owns that information”
– Senior media officer
“We have a very fine line of we’re not forecasters, so we don’t do
any of the forecasting we just share it from BoM”
– Senior media officer

24. INTERVIEWS AND PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION – KEY FINDINGS
• One of many players in the current crisis
communications ecology
“I think the days of the…lone social media…publisher – you know
the Queensland Police “we save the world by giving them all first-
hand information” – I think it has moved on in the Queensland
context. I don’t think it has disappeared, I think there is still a role
for that but it has got to be the right sort of event…”
– Communications manager

25. INTERVIEWS AND PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION – KEY FINDINGS
• Centralisation of information through Premier’s media
team
“We were told everything had to go through them as kind of a
single source of truth”
– Senior media officer

26. INTERVIEWS AND PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION – KEY FINDINGS
• Reliance on mainstream media for update
“…with media on the ground they are seeing things for themselves,
we are looking at media to find out what they are doing [laughs]
and what they are seeing.”
– Communications manager

27. INTERVIEWS AND PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION – KEY FINDINGS
• Access to on the ground information difficult
“And sometimes, you don’t know [what is happening] because they
are so operationally busy, you can’t track them down. […] It’s the
nature of the beast media is really, it’s a second priority to them, it’s
operational which is understandable – “oh yeah I’ve got to do an
interview right now or I have got to go into this water and save
somebody who is trapped and clinging to a tree” – we’re gonna get
second, it’s always operational first
– Media officer

28. INTERVIEWS AND PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION – KEY FINDINGS
• BUT only for context, not to share that information to
followers
“…I’ve never been told this, but my kind of rule that I use is that if
it’s something that you can get from elsewhere don’t go to a media
website, like if it can be from an official source it’s much better.”
– Senior media officer
“…if it was a good picture I would share but didn’t really share the
information they provided because you know there’s always, you
have to verify stuff, even what the media say, it could be untrue. I
would try to stick to official sources instead of going to the media…”
– Media officer