Using social media in crisis

management: benefits & challenges

Case study: Social Media in the Ebola crisis

Luis Fernandez Luque (luis.luque@norut.no)

24th October, 2014 - PhD Trial Lecture

Computer Science Department, UiT, Tromso, Norway

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Social Media

Global Social Media

Source: http://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-

content/uploads/2011/09/social-media-black.jpeg

Most popular social media by country

Social Media – Medicine 2.0

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Crisis

• “a difficult or dangerous situation that needs

serious attention”

• “the turning point for better or worse in an acute

disease or fever”

• “an emotionally significant event or radical

change of status in a person's life”

Source: merriam-webster.com

Crisis Management

Global Sector/Company Personal

Crisis Management

Source: William Crandall, John E. Spillan, Crisis Management in the New Strategy

Landscape, SAGE, 2009, ISBN:1412954134

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Ebola Crisis – before the crisis

http://healthmap.org/ebola/#timeline

Ebola Crisis – before the crisis

“HealthMap’s automated text-

processing algorithm has been

tracking the Ebola outbreak since

March 14, when the Guinean news

site Africaguinee.com reported “a

strange fever” in the country’s

Macenta prefecture “marked by

anal and nasal bleeding.”

Larry Greenemeier, "Smart Machines

Join Humans in Tracking Africa Ebola

Outbreak", Scientific American,

September 24, 2014

Ebola – mobile health

“The ongoing west African Ebola

outbreak serves as a call … to

accelerate the implementation of

smartphone-based health

applications in developing

countries”Ansumana R, Bonwitt J, Stenger DA, Jacobsen KH.

Ebola in Sierra Leone: a call for action. Lancet.

2014 Jul 26;384(9940):303

http://www.unfoundation.org/news-and-media/publications-and-

speeches/mhealth-for-development-1.html

mHealth and Big Data

“"We've never had this large-scale, anonymised mobile phone data

before as a species," says Nuria Oliver, a scientific director at mobile

phone company Telefonica.” BBC News

Matthew Wall, "Ebola: Can big data analytics help contain its spread?”, 14

October, BBC News, http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29617831

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Ebola – Fake News

http://blogs.elpais.com/verne/2014/10/b

ulos-ebola-espana.html

Ebola – Fake News

Ebola – Fake cures: nano silver

Ebola – Fake cures: nano silver

Ebola – Fake cures: response

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActi

ons/WarningLetters/2014/ucm416051.htm

Ebola – For Sale

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Social Communication

Ebola – mobile health

Ebola – mobile (un)health

Ebola – SMS communication

http://www.ttcmobile.com/newsitem/using-sms-for-social-mobilization-and-

reporting-on-the-ebola-outbreak-2/

Ebola Crisis – Fighting Stigma

https://www.youtube.com/user/who/about

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Benefits

• Real time monitoring

• Global reach with low cost

• Multiple data sources (sensors, people, content)

• Easy to scale: fast deployment, not extra cost in

infrastructure.

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Challenges

Nowadays crisis are worldwide complex systems

crisis:

• Lack of monitoring and actuation tools

• Tools for policy makers

• Simulation and forecasting of miscommunication

• Enforcement

• Integration of multiple data source

• Training: social media is not simple

Challenges: Digital Wildfires in a Hyperconnected

World Constellation

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalRisks_Report_2013.pdf

Agenda

3 4Social Media

1Crisis Management

2Miss-

communicationDetection & Monitoring

7 8Education &

Communication

5Benefits

6ConclusionsChallenges

Conclusions

• Social Media has a huge impact at

global/country/local crisis

• Rapid development, lack of tools for research

and policy making

• Chaos, Complex Systems Science

• Highly multidisciplinary research

• Big Data and Data Analytics of Social Media is

growing as business in multiple sectors.

Luis Fernandez Luque (luis.luque@norut.no)

+34 656 93 09 01

http://www.slideshare.net/luis.luque