The Role of Social Media in Typhoon Preparedness and Response
The Philippines has been name as the world’s most exposed country to tropical storms. An average of 20 storms per year hit the country, five of which are destructive. In 2013, Super Typhoon Yolanda hits the central Philippine island, as it is the most destructive typhoon ever recorded in history. It left with over 6000 casualties and 1 million homes were damaged. During this course of event, the number one problem lies in the accessibility of trustworthy information which includes the evacuation area, what roads are not accessible, and how to send help to those in need. In today’s time, social media plays a significant role in giving information in real time event. In the essay about typhoon will be analysed the role of social media during natiral disasters.
Social media is a form of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages and other content. These include Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and WhatsApp, in which it has now become a part of one’s daily life. Since information is just one click away from these platform sites, it may also lead in accessing false information and news without even realizing it. As stated by J. Clement, social media is one of the most popular online activities in which 2.82 billion people have access to social media platforms. As of 2019, Philippines ranked 1st in the worldwide usage of internet and social media platform. An average Filipino spends 4 hours and 12 minutes in social media in which 75 million have access to Facebook which accounted to 68.5% of entire population. With Facebook as the leading social media sites used in the Philippines, it can help disseminate information on who needs rescuing, what are the help the victim needs. Thus, one should be careful in reading information because of the spreading of false information.
This study is guided on the main research question: To what extent did the use social media affects the people during typhoon? The rationale of this question is what significant role does social media would play during the onset of typhoon. Will it help the local government to lessen the casualty or would it scare the community? This paper will focus on the role of social media before, during and after the typhoon. To answer the main question the following sub-questions are also asked: what are the common information do people post during typhoon? This implies what are the patterns of tweets or facebook post during the calamities. Is there a significant similarities and differences of the information they post on social media sites? To what extent this information helps the disaster preparedness of the country? Do the information they post help the government in alleviating the problem or will it just worsen?
The Role of Social Media in Disaster Preparedness
Communication is an important tool during calamity because it kept the world informed regarding the damage on infrastructure, the actual number of casualties and how can they send aide to the victim. During typhoon, Facebook opens their option “check safe” where people will get to know who are safe during the typhoon and their friends will be notified. Facebook can also be used as a tool to locate missing person during typhoon, one must open their GPS or their location. It can also be a way in fund raising to plan relief mission.
Disseminate information. Social media can be used to disseminate information before the onset of the calamity. It can alert the people on where and when the typhoon would hit, where are the nearest evacuation areas they could go, what numbers they would call if they need rescuing. Monitoring. Social media allows real time access to the path of the typhoon. What storm signals do each municipality have, if there are pre-emptive evacuation, class suspensions, and monitoring of water level, flash floods and storm surges. Coordinating. Social media also served as a quick and efficient communication to coordinate with one another, especially in the command centre. Example of these are PAGASA can coordinate information with the Disaster Risk Reduction Management.
Social media is a two way communication in which it enables the rescuer and the victim to communicate easily. But during typhoon, communication is not that easy especially when all the communication lines are down, so it is important to have a command centre in which they will build satellite so communication would be easier. Before a disaster, social media can help people better prepare for first aid kits and essentials, what number to call if they need rescuing, or where are the nearest evacuation areas. During disaster, social media can help users to communicate directly to their family and share immediate information. After the disaster, social media brings the community together to discuss the aftermath of the typhoon and what measures they would implement.
The Danger of Social Media During Calamity
During natural calamities, social media provides access to relevant and timely information from both official and non-official sources and facilitates a feeling of connectedness. Which implies that through social media, we can directly send help to those who are in need. But there are repercussions when using social media, because it can also use to mislead information, a platform for corruption and medium to complain.
Misleading information. According to Taylor et al. research found that only a very small percentage (6%) of the population will rely solely on social media for information, resulting from their suspicion of the validity of information. It was also stated that in order to maintain integrity and trust, the administrators of the social media pages must identify and ban as early as possible trolls and other disturbances. Others will rely solely on traditional media such as radio and televisions, Social media can also give misleading information that can spread a wide panic to the community for example, the shortage of food and medical supply, shortage of water and accessibility to the city. As the information flow increases during calamity, authorities have less control over it, and might be pressured to validate and authenticate the information generated by the public.
Social media can also be a medium of corruption. During calamity, the world will be kept informed on what is happening based on real time events. With this, neighbouring country would send their help or donation which can lead to corruption of some officials. It can also be a platform of complain for those people who didn’t get enough help or assistance.
Conclusion
The focus of this paper was to analyse the use of social media in disaster preparedness, it focuses on the utilization of social media before, during, and after the typhoon. Social media can be used to post a disaster warning on where the typhoon would land, disseminate information regarding evacuation areas, find a missing person, or spread awareness on what to prepare and what to do during typhoon. With this information at hand, people would become more aware on how to plan their own safety.
