Presentation given by Hayley Watson at the 2014 ISCRAM conference.
Title: Social media and the 2013 UK heatwave: opportunities and challenges forfuture events
Social media and the 2013 UK heat wave - ISCRAM 2014
1. Social media and the 2013 UK heat
wave: opportunities and challenges for
future events
Authors
Hayley Watson and Rachel L. Finn
Trilateral Research & Consulting
19 May 2014, ISCRAM, USA.
@COSMIC_FP7
http://www.cosmic-project.eu
#ISCRAM2014
3. ABOUT COSMIC
COSMIC will deliver a set of
instructions, recommendations
& best practices for the use of
social media in emergency
situations.
#ISCRAM2014
4. This paper…
• To consider: does the type of crisis have
the ability to impact the value of the use of
social media in a crisis?
• This paper is part of a wider examination
of 8 case studies.
• Methodology:
• Non-representative, exploratory
analysis of the use of SM during the
2013 UK heat wave.
• Policy documents, news articles,
websites, SM feeds - national
weather forecasters, public health
bodies, charities and critical
infrastructure providers
http://www.cosmic-project.eu
5. THE HEATWAVE
• July - August 2013
• South East England – 32°C / 89.6°F – triggered a level three warning as
temps had exceeded the level for 3 consecutive days.
• 540-760 excess deaths in England, 60-100 in Wales (early estimates)
• Dry weather led to storms – caused disruption to transport service
providers, power supplies.
• Public Heath England primarily used e-mail, television and radio to issue
heat wave warnings
http://www.cosmic-project.eu
6. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
SM used by authorities, service organisations and charities to distribute
messages about the event and its health implications and other effects via
one-way communication:
@COSMIC_FP7
8. FUNCTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Service organisations used SM as a form of two-way communication to collect
information from the public about vulnerable individuals and power outages
@COSMIC_FP7
9. ENGAGEMENT
SM less successful for relaying information
•BRC few re-tweets: 70, 745 followers – less than 15 retweets of
health related messages.
•Virgin Trains messages were re-tweeted six times.
•Retweets from individuals rather than information brokers
– One exception is the UK Power Networks message, which was re-
tweeted by the Peterborough Telegraph, a regional newspaper.
@COSMIC_FP7
11. HASH TAGS
• #heatwave
– Mixed use – health messages, preparedness, commercial –
advertising, personal – complaining/celebrating.
• Mixed Geography…The hashtag also included information about
heat waves in other locations (e.g., Germany and the USA)
making it difficult to use it to organise information about the
events in the UK.
@COSMIC_FP7
12. IN COMPARISON…
• Boston attacks - BPD;
– from 55,000 followers, to three hours after the attacks growing to
100,000 followers, and by the end of the ordeal, they had grown to
having 300,000 followers (McKay, 2014).
• Explanation:
– Type of crisis?
– Newsworthiness
@COSMIC_FP7
13. ACCOUNTING FOR A LACK OF
ENGAGEMENT…
• Type of crisis & who it affects…Who is using social
media
• Met Office Facebook page included a general
discussion of people enjoying the hot weather, as
well as a comment that (sarcastically) questioned
the use of warnings
• The way it was used by some organisations –
could it have been better?
http://www.cosmic-project.eu
“Do we really need
warnings we survived
without them before
here's a clue if the sun is
shining it could get hot
you don't need to tell
us”.
“Do we really need
warnings we survived
without them before
here's a clue if the sun is
shining it could get hot
you don't need to tell
us”.
14. LESSONS LEARNED
• Traditional methods of communications remain valuable
• We can’t rely solely on the public to relay information…instead
efforts are needed to encourage working relationships between
different stakeholders in preparing for, responding to &
recovering from a crisis
• Remember – AMM “Audience, Message & Medium”
• Reflection needed on the value of SM important to progressing in
this area
• Further research that considers the type of crisis
@COSMIC_FP7
http://www.cosmic-project.eu
15. COSMIC – NEXT STEPS…
Istanbul – International workshop – 4 September 2014
Involving Citizens in Emergency Preparedness and Response4
http://www.cosmic-project.eu
Guidelines – members of the public, as well as public & private organisations.
LinkedIn: COSMIC Project
16. THANK YOU
If you have any further questions or would like to be kept up-to-
date with the projects findings and events please contact:
•Hayley Watson: hayley.watson@trilateralresearch.com
Editor's Notes
Status – entering year 2!
Greece, Belgium, Netherlands, Turkey and UK.
This study was not intended to be an in-depth analysis of the content of SM, but rather, a preliminary observation of stakeholder use and engagement with SM during a heat wave. As such, it is limited by the scope of stakeholders it was able to identify and examine, and thus the findings should be treated accordingly.
Heatwaves are considered a crisis for two different reasons. First, they trigger health-related effects. Older people, young babies and those with chronic diseases are susceptible to illness and/or death during heatwaves. For instance, in the 2003 heatwave, experts estimated that there were approximately 2,000 causalities in the UK, and around 30,000 in Europe as a whole.74
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10178383/Heatwave-to-last-until-August.html
In the UK, heat wave trigger levels vary by region, and in the South of England, temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius in London prompted a level three warning as temperatures reached that set level for three consecutive days (BBC, 2013a). Early estimates indicate that there may have been between 540-760 excess deaths in England and 60-100 excess deaths in Wales as a result of the rising temperatures (BBC News, 2013b). At the peak of the heat wave (17-23July 2013), the dry temperatures led to storms which caused disruption for some transport service providers and disruption to power supplies in the east of England affecting power to homes, businesses, trains and the regional airport (BBC 2013c; BBC 2013d).
The London Resilience Team, a central crisis management body, used their Twitter account to spread news about the temperatures and the availability of free water in particular
locations.
Other critical infrastructure and response organisations used SM similarly. Transport companies, such as Virgin Trains, publicised the disruption caused by heat-related storms.
The British Red Cross (BRC) communicated heat wave-related information, particularly about staying cool and preventing dehydration.
Finally, SM applications were used to share public health and safety information on the effects of the crisis by news organisations, such as the location of forest fires (BBC 2013e).
Transport companies, such as Virgin Trains, publicised the disruption caused by heat-related storms.
The British Red Cross (BRC) communicated heat wave-related information, particularly about staying cool and preventing dehydration.
Finally, SM applications were used to share public health and safety information on the effects of the crisis by news organisations, such as the location of forest fires (BBC 2013e).
SM appears to be less successful in distributing information among members of the public about the heat wave, as indicated by the number of “shares” and “re-tweets” these messages generate
Use of YouTube - in collaboration with the CSO, Cancer Research UK, the Met Office profile, which has 5,419 subscribers, published videos relating to keeping safe in the sun, including staying safe from sun burn, what clothes to wear, how to avoid peek temperatures etc.
Shows audience engagement
SM appears to be less successful in distributing information among members of the public about the heat wave, as indicated by the number of “shares” and “re-tweets” these messages generate
This lack of sharing and amplifying of heat wave-related information was likely due to the fact that heat waves largely impact older people, very young people and those with chronic health conditions, some of whom are least likely to be social media users. Therefore, the vast majority of people are not impacted by mid-level heat waves such as that experienced in the UK in 2013. For example, specific comments on the Met Office Facebook page included a general discussion of people enjoying the hot weather, as well as a comment that (sarcastically) questioned the use of warnings; “Do we really need warnings we survived without them before here's a clue if the sun is shining it could get hot you don't need to tell us”. Similarly, the #Heatwave Twitter feed that included commercial, personal and international information may have been useful or at least innocuous to those enjoying the warm weather.
Working relationships – TRUST is important!
AMM central to designing adequate social media strategies
We want to engage with you to promote better standards and guidance…for different types of stakeholders