IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014 - 60

Emergency communication should
not be reduced to content delivery and the population should not
be seen as a passive receiver of
information and instructions [57].
The key words for depicting communication in an emergency/crisis
include "response," "conversation,"
and "dialogue." The dialogical
pattern of communication helps
empower individuals and increase
community resilience; it is most
suited to situations characterized
by constant change, uncertainty,
and destroyed infrastructure [50].
Practitioners involved in crisis
management understand very well
that emergency/crisis communication is about communicating with
affected people, with individuals in an emotional arousal state.
Emotional arousal is an instinctive
mechanism that helps threatened
people survive due to increased
energy, strength, emotional toughness, and so on [58]. It is necessary
to understand, however, that people
in this state are unable to place the
threat in context. Tension needs
to be discharged, usually through
anxiety or anger. Both of these
states are characterized by specific
patterns of communicative behavior. For example, angry outbursts
can be manifested by repeating the
same thing in different ways.
Emergency/crisis communication is based on the idea that affected
people should not be treated as
sources or recipients of information,
because they cannot objectively
evaluate risks and because their primary need is to release tension. People in states of high anxiety or anger
need to be listened to; they demand
certainty and support, rather than
information. Therefore, emergency
management teams need to adopt
an interaction-focused communicative strategy. This involves showing understanding and solidarity,
speaking slowly and quietly, using
simple words and short sentences,
and responding actively by nodding, asking questions, and trying to
reconstruct the context [58].
60

Media Use in Crisis
Analysis of uses and functions of
different communication media
(television, radio, telephone, website, email, and so on) has become
an important area of disaster
studies. Analyzing communications media helps crisis workers
learn which channels are used for
addressing specific needs. Needs
are identified during the process of
content analysis and may include
seeking news about the crisis, verifying the safety of family members
and friends, requesting or providing emotional support, and participating in an exchange of opinions
related to the crisis. It is important
to compare different communication channels in terms of their
capacity to serve these needs.
It is also important to reveal
how the channels' effectiveness
depends on social and organizational factors. For instance, a case
study [59] demonstrated that only
major news sites were affected by
the Web's limited ability to handle
massive traffic after 9/11. Organizational problems played a major
role when it came to government
agencies' sites, with some agencies being simply unprepared for
rapid response and relevant assistance. Technological capacity may
not compensate for the fact that
different groups and individuals have unequal access to computer technology and necessary
skills. The most technologically
disadvantaged groups are often
the most vulnerable, since they
frequently experience the greatest
health-related disparities [60]. The
importance of this aspect implies
the need for a socially responsible
and inclusive policy regarding the
use of new communication technologies in disaster planning and
emergency management.
Summary
Disaster and emergency communication is a specialized area of practice that draws upon disaster studies
and related research areas. As Fig.

2 suggests, disaster and emergency
communication is determined by
specific conditions, is characterized
by the certainty of the participants'
roles, and is governed by explicit
principles and rules.
Disaster/emergency communication is an activity that takes place in
exceptional and extreme environmental and psychological conditions,
which include disaster (types, causes,
and phases), social (dis) organization,
infrastructure failure, psychological
fallacies, and the human brain's limited capacity to process information
and act on it.
The participants of communication processes include official
agencies responsible for disaster
planning and emergency management, and the affected or at-risk
population. Their roles and relationships are clearly defined and
dependent on the purpose of communicative activity. Emergency
management requires a dialogical
communication model. This model
is more effective for obtaining contextual data (time, location, individual needs), evaluating and making
decisions regarding individuals'
help requests, and providing psychological support to victims and
other affected groups.
The participants' communicative activities are clearly defined
and governed by explicitly formulated rules regarding message
content, communication format,
and the properties of information
source and channel. Communication effects depend on the factors
of trust, compliance with authorities, information quality, and message quality.

Social Media in Disaster and
Emergency Situations
Research on social media in disaster
and emergency situations comprises
diverse areas, including surveys of
the population's thoughts regarding social media use in emergency
situations, case studies of practitioners' and communities' experiences of social media use during

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SPRING 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014