The use of social media in crisis communication

This chapter highlights how social media can support the changing landscape of crisis communication. It identifies the challenges that arise from the use of social media and ways of dealing with these challenges. A framework for monitoring the development of social media practices amongst countries for crisis communication is proposed. This includes a three-step process that spans passive to dynamic use of social media. This chapter provides governments with a self-assessment tool that will enable them to monitor and track progress in the effective use of social media by emergency services or crisis managers.