This document discusses a case study of social media use during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It examines how platforms like YouTube, Twitter, ESRI, Ushahidi, Google Person Finder, and others helped spread information about the crisis and allowed for copresence between users. Though social media provided new ways to communicate during disasters, the summary also notes limitations like a lack of face-to-face contact and issues with the authenticity and congestion of information online.

1. Mobile Phone Cultures
and the
Reporting
of Crises and Disasters
“The Mourning After: A case study
of social media in
the 3.11 earthquake disaster in
Japan”
Larissa Hjorth and Yonnie Kyoung-hwa
Page Nelson
30 August 2012

2. Remediation
• How did we previously communicate with each other
during natural disasters?
• Written mail
• Telephone
• Newspapers
• Television

3. The Postcard
What makes the postcard the “first step” towards
new media?

4. The Remediation of “People Power”
Joseph (2012)
Allan et al. (2007)
This article believes
that “new media do not
make revolutions happen,
they…frame how they
are conceptualized and
experienced in different
ways”

6. Mobile Intimacy
What is it?
“Geographic and physical space is overlaid with an
electronic position and relational presence, which is
emotional and social”
“Technological, geographic, socioeconomic and
psychological mobility”
“Intimate Publics”

7. Copresence
“Being here yet there”
“Perpetual contact”
YouTube
Twitter
ESRI
Ushahidi
Person Finder (Google)

8. Copresence: YouTube
Hours after the 3.11 earthquake,
more than 9,000 earthquake videos and
7,000 tsunami videos were already
posted on YouTube
Earthquake in Japan: YouTube Documents Quake

9. Copresence: Twitter
Hashtag: #prayforjapan
Rescue efforts
Tweets to
@AmbassadorRoos
Disneyland twitpic

10. “Social media is faster than seismic
waves”
Tweetdeck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h-To6EXc3w
August 2011 earthquake on USA’s East Coast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZcLboTRTDQ
@JesseCFriedman I saw the tweets from DC about
earthquake, then 15 seconds later felt it in NYC. Social media
is faster than seismic waves!
@RyanPraskievicz I read about this earthquake on twitter
before I felt the tremble. New tech beats old tech... Again.
@Kandoh Haha! I was able to read about the earthquake on
Twitter right before I felt it! I love living in the future.

11. Copresence: ESRI
3.11 earthquake: A social media map was created that
“resonate[d] with the cries of people caught up in the crisis,
through their tweets, Flickr photos and YouTube videos”
Map has now been taken down from the website, however I
found screenshot of the map in action during the 3.11
earthquake

13. Copresence: Ushahidi
Ushahidi
3.11 earthquake
“8,000 reports were received via social media about shelters, food
stores, cell phone charging centers and road closures”

14. Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake
(Google)
The Japan 3.11 person finder has been deactivated but
the basic one still exists:
Google Person Finder

15. Limits of social mobile media
Grief management
New media = “too direct and vocal”
Lack of face-to-face contact
“Authenticity” of social media websites and
information
“Congested networks”

16. Conclusion
Personal experience with social mobile media during
flooding crisis when I was traveling in Thailand
@RichardBarrow

17. References
Allan, Stuart, Prasun Sonwalkar and Cynthia Carter. (2007). Bearing witness: citizen journalism and human rights issues.
Globalisation, Societies and Education, 5(3): 373-389.
Bruns, A. (2010). From reader to Writer: Citizen journalism as news produsage. In Husinger, Jeremy, Klastrup, Lisbeth, & Allen,
Matthew (Eds.) Internet Research Handbook. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 119-134. Retrieved from
http://snurb.info/files/2010/From%20Reader%20to%20Writer.pdf
Ford, R. (2011, August 23). Earthquake: Twitter Users Learned of Tremors Seconds Before Feeling Them. The Hollywood
Reporter. Retrieved August 24, 2012 from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/earthquake-twitter-users-
learned-tremors-226481
Joseph, S. (2012). ‘Social Media, Political Change, and Human Rights’, Boston College International and Comparative Law
Review, 35, 145-188.
Hjorth, Larissa and Kim, Kyoung-hwa Yonnie. (2011). The Mourning After: A case study of social media in the 3.11 earthquake
disaster in Japan. Television and New Media, 12(6): 552-559.
MySecureCyberspace (n.d.). Trends in Social Media: Use in Natural Disasters. MySecureCyberspace: Trends in Social Media: Use
in Natural Disasters. Retrieved August 24, 2012 from http://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/articles/classroom/trends-in-
social-media- use-in-natural-disasters.html
Nguyen, T. (2011, April 12). Social media comes to aid of Japan. Ted Nyugen USA. Retrieved August 24, 2012 from
http://www.tednguyenusa.com/social-media-helps-japan/
Sternberg, S. (2011, April 11). Social media map plots a Japan beyond geography. USA Today. Retrieved August 26, 2012 from
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-04-11-japan-social-media-map_esri_N.htm
TheAustralian (2012, March 27). Using social media during natural disasters is comforting, empowering, study finds. The
Australian. Retrieved August 25, 2012 from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/using-social-media-during-natural-
disasters-is-comforting-empowering-study-finds/story-e6frg996-1226311497275
Wallop, H. (2011, March 13). Japan earthquake: How Twitter and Facebook helped. The Telegraph. Retrieved August 26, 2012
from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8379101/Japan-earthquake-how-Twitter-and-Facebook-helped.html