Presentation given by Hayley Watson at the 2014 ISCRAM conference. Title: Social media and the 2013 UK heatwave: opportunities and challenges forfuture events

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

2. PROJECT OVERVIEW
Duration
24 months
Total funding
€1,228,896.00
Team
7 Partners from 5 countries
Co-ordinator
European Dynamics
(Greece)
@COSMIC_FP7

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

7. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
@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

10. AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT – UK MET
OFFICE – 5,419 SUBSCRIBERS
@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