Social Media in Crisis Management: The use of social media during crisis management of major disturbances of public order by the police

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Social Media in Crisis Management

The use of social media during crisis management

of major disturbances of public order by the police

Name: Erik Chen

Student ID: s0918784 Supervisor: Mr.dr. W. Jong Second reader: Dr. S.L. Kuipers Master Thesis Crisis and Security Management

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs Leiden University Word count: 23.995

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Table of Contents

1.3. Structure of the thesis: ... 9

2. Body of literature: ... 10

2.1. Crisis management: ... 11

2.1.1. Major disturbances of public order:... 12

2.2. Social media: ... 14

2.3. Social media and crisis management: ... 17

2.3.1. Social media, crisis management, and the public: ... 17

2.3.2. Social media, crisis management, and the authorities: ... 19

2.3.3. Framework for analysis: ... 20

2.3.3.1. Social media as a method of engaging with the public:... 21

2.3.3.2. Social media as a method of gathering information: ... 23

2.4. Framework for analysis: ... 25

2.4.1. Sharing information: ... 25

2.4.2. Dispelling of rumours: ... 26

2.4.3. Cooperative product of safety and justice: ... 26

2.4.4. Community of followers:... 26 2.4.5. Encouraging citizens: ... 26 2.4.6. Crowd-sourced information:... 26 2.4.7. Monitoring of feeds: ... 26 3. Research design: ... 28 3.1. Case selection: ... 29

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3.2. Data collection: ... 29

3.3. Limitations: ... 30

4. Case study results: ... 31

4.1. Virginia Tech Shooting: ... 31

4.1.1. Social media and the Virginia Tech Shooting: ... 31

4.1.1.1. Sharing information: ... 32

4.1.1.2. Dispelling of rumours: ... 32

4.1.1.3. Cooperative product of safety and justice: ... 33

4.1.1.4. Community of followers: ... 33

4.1.1.5. Encourage citizens to inform and help others: ... 33

4.1.1.6. Collect crowd-sourced information: ... 33

4.1.1.7. Monitor Social Networks: ... 34

4.1.2. Take-aways: ... 34

4.2. 2011 England Riots ... 35

4.2.1. Social Media and the 2011 England Riots: ... 35

4.2.1.1. Sharing information: ... 35

4.2.1.2. Dispelling of rumours: ... 36

4.2.1.3. Cooperative product of safety and justice: ... 36

4.2.1.4. Community of followers: ... 37

4.2.1.5. Encourage citizens to inform and help others: ... 37

4.2.1.6. Collect crowd-sourced information: ... 38

4.2.1.7. Monitor Social Networks: ... 38

4.2.2. Take-aways: ... 39

4.3. Boston Bombings 2013: ... 41

4.3.1. Social Media and the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing: ... 41

4.3.1.1. Sharing Information: ... 41

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4.3.1.3. Cooperative Product of Safety and Justice: ... 42

4.3.1.4. Community of Followers: ... 43

4.3.1.5. Encourage Citizens to Inform and Help Others: ... 44

4.3.1.6. Collect Crowd-Sourced Information: ... 44

4.3.1.7. Monitor Social Networks: ... 44

4.3.2. Take-aways: ... 45

4.4. Brussels Attacks 2016: ... 47

4.4.1. Social Media and the 2016 Brussels Attacks: ... 47

4.4.1.1. Sharing Information: ... 47

4.4.1.2. Dispelling of Rumours: ... 48

4.4.1.3. Cooperative Product of Safety and Justice: ... 48

4.4.1.4. Community of Followers: ... 49

4.4.1.5. Encourage Citizens to Inform and Help Others: ... 49

4.4.1.6. Collect Crowd-Sourced Information: ... 49

4.4.1.7. Monitor Social Networks: ... 49

4.4.2. Take-aways: ... 50

4.5. Manchester Bombing 2017: ... 51

4.5.1. Social Media and the 2013 Manchester Bombing: ... 51

4.5.1.1. Sharing Information: ... 51

4.5.1.2. Dispelling of Rumours: ... 52

4.5.1.3. Cooperative Product of Safety and Justice: ... 52

4.5.1.4. Community of Followers: ... 53

4.5.1.5. Encourage Citizens to Inform and Help Others: ... 53

4.5.1.6. Collect Crowd-Sourced Information: ... 53

4.5.1.7. Monitor Social Networks: ... 53

4.5.2. Take-aways: ... 54

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5.1.1. Sharing information: ... 55

5.1.2. Dispelling of rumours: ... 56

5.1.3. Cooperative product of safety and justice: ... 57

5.1.4. Community of followers:... 58

5.1.5. Encouraging citizens: ... 59

5.1.6. Crowd-sourced information:... 60

5.1.7. Monitoring of feeds: ... 60

5.2. Take-aways: ... 61

5.2.1. Take-aways per case: ... 65

5.2.2. General take-aways: ... 66

6. Conclusion: ... 69

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1. Introduction:

Your local community police officer is on social media, he or she probably uses social media services or applications like Facebook and Twitter daily to share about their daily duties. The Dutch Nationale Politie (Politie, n.d.) allows (local) police officers and police departments to use social media to share information on local issues, to warn for specific threats, or for many other reasons.

This is just one of the many ways of using social media in crisis management. In 2019 there were around 3.5 billion social media users worldwide (Chaffey, 2019), all these users could be potential resources in crisis management. Just like on January 15, 2009, when a Twitter user reported the successful emergency landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. This report was the first of its kind, it informed emergency responders and the media that the emergency landing was successful, passengers were evacuating the airplane, and the occupants were being picked up by nearby boats and ferries. (Langer, 2014) This is just one example of the use of social media in crisis management.

Police departments can use a vast array of social media methods and resources for crisis management. This study aims to shine a light on the use of social media by police departments in crisis management during major disturbances of public order.

1.1. Research question:

The aim of this study is to present more insight in the methods of social media in crisis management. Within crisis management this study will focus on a specific type of event, and a specific actor. The focus will be on police departments during major disturbances of public order. Many actors are involved in maintaining public order, it would not be feasible to account for every single actor in the domain of crisis management. Therefore, it is necessary that the focus will lie with police departments because maintaining public order is one of their core tasks (Toorman & den Engelsman, 2009). The police departments are on the frontline of maintaining public order and are the first line of contact for the public. This role as a first line of contact is especially relevant in the context of the interaction on social media with the public. This insight is sought through two connected paths of thought. An analysis of several cases of the use of social media in crisis management during major disturbances of public order will be elucidated by using a framework formulated from a body of literature. This framework will guide the research, by making clear what social media methods were used or could have been used in the cases of crisis management by police departments during major disturbances of

7 public order. The analysis of these cases will be compared over time to focus on the development of the use of social media in crisis management during major disturbances of public order by police departments. The framework formulated from the body of literature will act as a stencil for comparison, by identifying similarities, differences, and developments. To achieve this aim, a research question was formulated:

How did the use of social media by police departments in crisis management during major disturbances of public order develop in the network age and what are lessons-learned?

Two supportive sub-questions were formulated to support the research aim and the research question:

What is social media in the context of crisis management in times of public disorder? How can the police as an important actor in times of public disorder use social media in crisis management?

The two supportive sub-questions will be incorporated in the framework from the body of literature, this framework will act as a stencil for comparison for the five selected cases. The five cases considered are the 2007 Virginia Tech Shooting, the 2011 England Riots, the 2013 Boston Bombings, the 2016 Brussels Attacks, and the 2017 Manchester Bombing.

1.2. Relevance:

1.2.1. Theoretical relevance:

The current theoretical focus area of social media in crisis management has mostly been aimed at describing the use of social media in a single specific case in crisis management. For example, Lock, Cooke, and Jackson (2013) described the London riots of August 2011 and social media practices of law enforcement. Palen, Vieweg, Liu, and Hughes (2009) also described just one case, the features of computer-mediated communication during the Virginia Tech shooting of 2007. The surface of the potential of the use of social media in crisis management has only just been scratched. Other authors have started publishing about guidelines, advice, and best practices of the use of social media in crisis management. Alexander (2014) explored the potential use of social media in emergency, disaster, and crisis situations. Key findings are examples of how social media can support efforts of emergency services by increasing visibility of crisis management, empower initiatives, enabling two-way communication, and collecting spontaneous contributions by citizen first responders. Bartlett,

8 Miller, Crump, and Middleton (2013) summarized key opportunities and difficulties that are presented by social media to use for engagement, intelligence, and enforcement. These key opportunities and methods will be used as the core of the framework formulated in this research. Helsloot et al (2015) provide guidelines that aim to enhance the security and safety of citizens by supporting public authorities and citizens in their use of social media to add to their crisis management efforts. Some of these guidelines are to make sure that crisis management does not rely on just one single tool, you must be aware of the part of the public that does not use social media. Crisis management should also make sure information is correct, this is true for both information crisis management communicates with the public and information that is already circulating. Another key point is that crisis management must be aware of grassroot initiatives by the public, both during and after a crisis. This study will combine the two parts named above. The guidelines on the methods of using social media in crisis management will be used to create a theoretical framework, this theoretical framework will be used to take a closer look at on several cases of the use of social media by police departments in crisis management during major disturbances of public order. This combination could yield theoretically relevant results.

1.2.2. Practical relevance:

Within the Netherlands, 96% of the public use some kind of social media service or application (Oosterveer, 2020). This means that millions of people in the Netherlands are connected through social media, these people can be contacted, these people can contact each other, they can keep in touch with organisations or businesses, etcetera. (van der Veer, Boekee, & Hoekstra, 2020)

The Dutch Nationale Politie (Politie, 2018, p. 9) considers social media a platform that enables the police to cultivate meaningful connections within and outside of the organisation. They see social media as a method to direct and indirectly contribute to security in a way that is transparent, involved, responsible, and anticipatory. Social media offers the police the opportunity to increase visibility, and to cooperate with the public to catch criminals (DUIC, 2019). Being connected to millions of people could possibly be an opportunity that could add value in crisis management for police departments.

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1.3. Structure of the thesis:

The thesis will kick off with the existing body of literature of crisis management, social media, and the methods for using social media in crisis management. The body of literature will be used to build and formulate a framework for the analysis of the selected cases and their comparison. This chapter will be followed by an explanation of the research design of the thesis, this chapter will present the methods of this study. Next, the selected cases will be analysed using the framework created from the body of literature of social media and crisis management. The methods for using social media in crisis management will provide a rigid framework for analysing the selected cases. The fifth chapter will present the comparison of the cases, the framework formulated in chapter two will have provided a base for comparison between the cases. After building the framework from the body of literature, using the framework to analyse the cases, and comparing the cases, the thesis will move towards the conclusion. Finally, the literature references will be listed in the bibliography.

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2. Body of literature:

This chapter will elaborate on the existing body of literature of crisis management and social media, varying methods for using social media in crisis management will be explored and presented. Social media and crisis management will also be explained. The methods for using social media in crisis management will be used to build a framework to analyse the cases selected, and to study the use of social media in crisis management. The body of literature will provide a framework for the analysis of the cases selected, as well as a framework for comparison.

Before elucidating the existing body of literature of crisis management and social media, it is important to present the context in which these concepts are being studied. The context in which these concepts are studied is the network age. The network age represents the period of time in which social networks connect through technology at an ever-increasing speed. Social development and technological advances have boosted the creation of social networks on the internet. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2012 marked the year in which the number of six billion mobile phone users of which more than 1 billion smartphones was reached. This represents an era of change in which the world population is moving towards an online network, where information is produced and shared on an incredible scale. The Network Age is characterised by the increased reach of communication networks, as well as an increase in the groups of people able and willing to help people in need. (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs, 2013, pp. 10-11) The use of social media in crisis management will be studied with the increase in (mobile) connectivity in mind.

The chapter starts by explaining crisis management in the first section, as well as major disturbances of public order, and the role of citizens in crisis management. The second section will briefly explain social media. The essence of social media, what social media is used for, what social media services are most influential, and the statistics behind social media will be presented. The third section will cover the existing body of literature of methods for using social media in crisis management. The fourth section of this chapter will present the framework of methods for using social media in crisis management that will be used to analyse the selected cases in Chapter Four.

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2.1. Crisis management:

Crisis management is the management of exceptional situations. These exceptional situations could be any kind of disaster, catastrophe, incident, or anything other than unexceptional situations (Roux-Dufort, 2007, p. 105). Crisis management is the function or processes aimed at forecasting, identifying, and examining possible crisis situations, and to deploy means for the organisation to prevent a crisis, to deal with the crisis, and to overcome the crisis with minimal consequences. Crisis management kicks in when the society, or part of a society, affected can no longer adequately cope the situation using its own resources. Crisis management could involve many different types of crises ranging from natural disasters to traffic accidents, ranging from civil disorder to crime, and many more. (Hiltz, Diaz, & Mark, 2011, pp. 1-2) This study will focus on major disturbances of public order, this includes violence, riots, and (terrorist) attacks. These crimes have a big impact directly on the victim of the crime, as well as the immediate environment, and a general sense of security in society. (Opstelten, 2013)

Crisis management teams or partnerships consist of participants from different organisations. Crisis management in the Netherlands is coordinated by the Veiligheidsregio, of which there are 25. The Veiligheidsregio is a cooperation between different emergency response organisations and local authorities. These organisations can be the fire department, police department, medical services, municipalities, the military, and many other organisations (Veiligheidsregio Groningen, 2016). Maintaining public order is a responsibility that lies with the mayor of a city or town, who works together with the chief of police and a representative of the Openbaar Ministerie1 to collaborate and decide on local priorities, police action, and how to approach criminality. The police, with the mayor in charge, maintain public order in the Netherlands (Regioburgemeesters, n.d.). This study will focus on the actions of one single actor in crisis management, the police department. The police department is the primary actor responsible for safety and security regarding disturbances of public order (Politie, 2016). Citizens are usually the first responders to a crisis or disaster. While it takes time for emergency services to respond, these citizens are often left to figure things out on their own in the meantime. These citizens help themselves and others in their community. This can take shape in the form of providing shelter or first aid, or assisting with search and rescue operations. The actions of the citizens responding to crises and disaster have increasingly become visible

12 through the growing presence of social media in crisis and disaster response. Official emergency response organizations are faced with groups and networks of unorganized and organized that are willing to help. These networks offer real-time, on-the-ground information of opportunities where they can aid and what kind of emergency response is needed (Ferguson, Schmidt & Boersma, 2018). Governments have appreciated the participation of civilians in crisis management as if it were an expansion of its own response capacity, however, this has not been included in official policies (Starmans & Oberijé, 2006).

The role of citizens in crisis management can be summarized as six different roles, citizens can prepare for a crisis, citizens can seek aid during a crisis, citizens can seek information during a crisis, citizens can provide aid during a crisis, citizens can help mobilizing during a crisis, and citizens can help with recording and sharing during a crisis. These roles can be empowered with the use of social media. Actions and strategies of crisis management teams and emergency services should be seen as three distinct phases, the pre-crisis phase, the crisis phase, and the post-crisis phase. These phases all require different actions and strategies for crisis management. The pre-crisis phase emphasises preparing for a crisis by creating awareness and building communication structures that can be used during a crisis. The crisis phase mostly focusses on managing the actual crisis, communicating accurate information, and directing the emergency services. During the post-crisis phase, emergency services support the rebuilding of the affected region and evaluate the crisis management effort. (Helsloot et al., 2015)

This study will focus on a specific part of crisis management, the police department and violent major disturbances of public order. This focus will support the comparative aspect of the study by creating a perspective for comparison.

2.1.1. Major disturbances of public order:

In order to support the compartative aspect of this study, this study will focus on major disturbances of public order. This will support the study by creating a perspective for comparison. Public order is the condition in which society is characterized by the absence of widespread political or criminal violence. This includes types of violence such as murder, riots, kidnapping, arson, and intimidation against targeted individuals or groups (United States Institute of Peace, n.d.). Maintaining public order is a core task of the police (Toorman & den Engelsman, 2009, p. 8). Disturbances of public order should not be confused with crimes against public order, which are criminal acts that oppose to society’s general ideas of moral values and normas social behaviour. Crimes against public order include prostitution,

13 pornography, alcohol, and drug offenses (US Legal, n.d.). Maintaining public order, or returning to a state of public order after a (major) disturbance has occorred, will protect the ability for the public to moove freely around the country, without having to fear violence. Crises or disasters that lead to major disturbances of public order are characterized by a high level of chaos, uncertainty, and fear. A crisis or disaster occurs suddenly and unexpectedly in most cases. This causes severe disturbances to the public, which can result in harm to the health of the population, the loss of life, the destruction of property, and/or damage to the environment. A less tangiable effect of a major disturbance of public order is the loss of security and well-being (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, n.d.). What distinguishes major disturbances of public order from other types of crises is the level of chaos, uncertainty, and fear. Other and smaller disasters or crises have the possibility to develop into a disturbance of public order, this depends on the scale of the event, and the impact the event has on society. The location of the event is also important to assess the impact of a disaster or crisis. The scale of the event also influences the number of people affected, which in turn influences the need for information. The level of chaos, uncertainty, and fear leads to an increased need for information on all sides of the crisis or disaster. The public and the crisis management team both need information to endure and overcome, or to resolve the crisis.

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2.2. Social media:

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p. 6) provide a commonly accepted definition of social media. Their definition is as follows: “Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications

that build on the ideological and techinical foundations of Web 2.0, and follow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content.” This defenition is still a very broad defenition,

which is inevitable since new social media applications or services appear in cyberspace every single day. A great amount of varying social media applications and services exist within social media. Social media range from blogs to collaborative projects, from social networking sites to content communities, and from virtual social worlds to virtual game worlds. The three characteristics of social media are speed, unlimited sharing possibilities, and interaction (Instituut Fysieke Veiligheid, 2014, p. 6).

Boyd & Ellison (2007, p. 210) add to this definition, they state that social media applications and services support and provide the maintenance of existing social networks, as well as provide the opportunity to connect with strangers based on shared activities, political views, or interests. This definition applies to social media in general, the specifics of the use of social media in times of crisis will be elucidated further on in this chapter.

According to Obar & Wildman (2015, pp. 747-748) the importance of interaction between users and the crucial importance of user generated content are the pillars on which social media is built. User generated content is web content in any form that was created by consumers and is published to all other consumers. User generated content can be a text, image, audio file, video, or any other form of digital media (Beal, n.d.). These interactions can occur between individual users, between groups of users, between organisations or companies and individual users, or between organisations and companies on social media. A user of social media can be an individual or a company or organisation with a profile with one or more of the social media services or applications. Within social media services and applications, the user is both a consumer that consumes the content and a producer who produces content. This content is communicated to other users. Without users and content, social media applications or services are just empty, desolated platforms.

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, pp. 61-64) provide six categories and further explanation for social media services and applications. The categories they present can help to understand the wide varyity of applications within the realm of social media and the ways in which they can be utilised. The categories relevant in the context of social media in crisis management are blogs

15 or weblogs, social networking sites, and content communities. Blogs or weblogs are the first form of social media that appeared, these applications can be compared to a diary in cyberspace. These weblogs can be text-based of feature any other kind of media format. Social networking sites are perhaps the most well-known example of social media. These applications and services enable users to connect to other users by creating profiles with personal information to which they can provide colleagues and friends access. These profiles are highly personalised with any type of personal information including videos, photos, audio files, and blog entries. Facebook and Twitter are the most widely used social networking sites. Content communities are applications and services that provide a platform to share media content between users. These media contents can vary from text to audio files, from photos to videos and other media files. Famous examples are Flickr, YouTube, and Instagram.

Social media applications and services are used for a wide variety of actions. Users use social media to share messages, upload videos and photos, and keep in touch with other users. Users can also keep in touch with organisations or companies on social media applications or services, notifications can be sent when new content is available (Rouse, 2015). Another important way of using social media is microblogging, social networking sites such as Twitter provide a platform for sending short messages. Microblogging applications and services limit the number of words or character a user can use to write his or her message (Newton, 2016). Users can send messages to eachother, to organisations, and to companies (Rouse, 2015). This type of sharing on social media can also be used by companies, organisations, or governments to share or request important information, to connect and engage with the public, and to learn about the public (Rainie & Wellman, 2012, pp. 284-285).

There are many different social media applications and services available on the internet. The social networking site Facebook is the biggest of them all, this social networking site reports having around two billion users that visit at least once a month, of which more than one billion users log in to Facebook daily (Moreau, 2020). Around 90% of all Facebook users access Facebook through mobile devices (Newsroom, 2016). Within the Netherlands 10.4 million people use Facebook, of which 7.1 million use Facebook daily (Van der Veer et al, 2020). Facebook users mostly share photos, post comments on daily activities, share news articles, and share videos created by other users (Bennet, 2014). Users mostly use Facebook to keep in touch with friends over long distances (Joinson, 2008, p. 1029). Companies and organisations also use Facebook for marketing, customer relations and service, and engagement with customers and prospective customers(Waters, Burnett, Lamm, & Lucas, 2009).

16 Another major social networking application or service is Twitter. This social media application provides a platform for short messages and photos. A user can follow any other user, and can also be followed by all other users. Messages sent via Twitter will automatically be visible for any user following the creator of the content. Hashtags (#) are used to label the subject or theme a message belongs to, and messages can be filtered through the use of these labels. This feature makes Twitter extremely usefull to track live events (Kwak, Lee, Park, & Moon, 2010). Twitter currently has 310 million monthly active users, of which 83% access Twitter from mobile devices (Twitter, n.d.). Within the Netherlands 2.8 million people use Twitter, of which more than 1.1 million use Twitter daily (Van der Veer et al, 2020).

For the purposes of this research, the definition of social media as presented by Jin, Liu, and Austin (2011, p. 363) will be used to study the use of social media in crisis management. They formulate the definition as follows: “various digital tools and applications that facilitate

interactive communication and content exchange among and between publics and organizations”.

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2.3. Social media and crisis management:

The emergence of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and many other applications and services has changed the way in which people share their daily events. This haystack of information also contains information relevant for policy makers and decisionmakers. (Omand, Barlett, & Miller, 2012, pp. 802-804) This trend of globalisation, dominated by advances in technology, requires a a change in approach for the way police departments manage crises (Ivan, Iov, Lutai, & Grad, 2015, p. 505).

During a crisis, most people use social media to communicate with other members of the public, different social media platforms are used for this purpose. When authorities use social media to interact with the public, they mostly use Twitter as a platform (Reuter, Hughes & Kaufhold, 2018). Twitter is the social media platform that is most widely used in crisis management efforts (Department of Homeland Security, 2013).

2.3.1. Social media, crisis management, and the public:

People seek in-depth and immediate information during disasters and crises, this leads to rising use of social media (Bates & Callison, 2008). The public create, consume, and response to information on social media during a crisis (Jin & Liu, 2010). The public has a sustained attention to social media during disasters. Citizens turn to social media to gain instant information, where information from other sources is lacking (Perng et al, 2012). Monitoring social media during a crisis or disaster can provide crisis managers with information on the public’s sentiments and reactions to crisis response (Coombs & Halladay, 2012).

The public uses social media during crises for a number of reasons, these are listed by Fraustino, Liu and Jin (2012, pp. 14-18). For one, it is conveniant because social media provides almost immediate access to information, support, and community interaction for the public. The use of social media applications combined with the use of a smartphone provides the public with access to information and support for a great part of the public, anytime and anywhere (Jin, Liu, Austin, 2011). Secondly, social norms have an impact on the use of social media in general, someone is more likely to use a particular source of information or service if their family and friends use it, and if they think the source is credible and trustworthy (Spiro et al, 2012). Third, the public is more likely to use social media if those who have positive experiences with social media recommend them to others. This is an important factor for infividuals to join a particular group on social media to support disaster efforts (Jin, Liu, Austin, 2011). Social media is also used during crisis for levity and humour, this is important as a

18 coping mechanism. Sometimes this is perceived as inappropriate, researchers have found that the number of humourous content declines as the situation becomes increasingly serious (Chew & Eysenbach, 2010). The fifth reason for the public to use social media durin crises is to seek information, a crisis often leads to high levels of uncertainty for the public, which creates the need for the public to increasingly start seeking information (Boyle, Schmierbach, Armstrong & McLeod, 2004). Seeking information is the public’s primary goal of the use of social media during a crisis (Liu, Jin & Austin, 2013). As a sixth reason, the public uses social media during a crisis to gain timely information. The speed in which social media is able to provide information, cannot be matched by what other media can provide (Kavanaugh et al, 2011). The public turns to social media for information when other media sources and officials were too slow (Sutton, Palen & Shlovski, 2008), or are unavailable (Spiro et al, 2012). The public also uses social media in a disaster to find unique information, they try to find the newest information that is available. This includes first-hand reports and eyewitness statements. The public has a need to obtain the newest information available during a crisis, and a need to gather and share information during crises (Palen, Starbird, Vieweg & Hughes, 2010). Fraustino, Liu and Jin (2012, pp. 14-18) provide the need for unfiltered information as the eighth reason for the public to use social media during a crisis. The public appreciates information that may be unfiltered by organizations, politicians, or traditional media (Liu et al, 2013). The public also uses social media to stay up-to-date with the extent of a crisis or disaster, in this case social media is often used because governmental or organizational sources are unable to deliver the information when the public desires it. The public, along with others, will proceed to fill in the void left by crisis management. However, this creates the risk of rumours and misinformation (Sutton et al, 2008). The tenth reason for the public to use social media during a crisis is to check in with friends and family, social media can be used to offer support, ensure safety, and obtain timely status updates. Social media is often used to let loved ones know that you are safe during a crisis or disaster (Procopio & Procopio, 2007). Another reason to use social media is to self-mobilize, the public can use social media to organize assistance and emergency relief. Social media can also help to identify and respond to urgent needs after during a crisis or disaster (Starbird & Palen, 2011). The public can also use social media in a crisis to maintain a sence of community, the public is able to share thoughts and feelings (Procopio & Procopio, 2007). The thirteenth and final reason for the public to use social media during a crisis or disaster provided by Fraustino, Liu and Jin (2012, pp. 14-18) is to seek emotional support and healing. Disasters and crisis are often tragic, violent, and uprooting events. In these events

19 social media are able to facilitate and provide emotional support. This is equally important for both natural disasters and man-made disasters (Procopio & Procopio, 2007; Perng et al, 2012). Fraustiono, Liu, and Jin (2012, pp. 19-20) also provide reasons for the public to not use social media during crises and disasters. The first and major reason for avoiding social media are privacy and security fears. The privacy and security of online applications is a general and global concern. This may cause (a part of) the public to avoid the internet or social media. Concerns include having comments taken out of context, and information being abused by criminals (Liu et al, 2013). A second reason is concerns about accuracy, the information spread on social media is often questionable, conflicting, incomplete, copied from other sources, or plain misinformation (Chew & Eysenbach, 2012). A third reason the public might not use social media in a crisis or disaster are access issues, in some cases a disaster could lead the public to lose the connection to the internet or social media. Researchers also state that some parts of the public might not be able to procure the devices needed to access social media applications (Veil, Buehner & Palenchar, 2011). The fourth and final reason the public does not use social media in a crisis or disaster are deficiencies in knowledge, certain parts of the public do not know how to use social media, they are not likely to start using social media during a disaster or crisis (Williams, Williams & Burton, 2012)

2.3.2. Social media, crisis management, and the authorities:

Social media have played an increasingly large role in crisis management over the last years. Social media applications are popular sources of emergency information. For example, they have been used to warn others about unsafe situations or areas, and they have been used to inform family and friends that someone is safe in a crisis situation. Lindsay (2012) sees two categories of using social media in crisis management. First, to disseminate information and receive feedback via messages. Second, use social media to conduct emergency communications and issue warnings, receiving requests for assistance from victims via social media, monitoring user activity to promote situational awareness, and to use uploded images in order to create damage assessments.

It is not just the criminals who extend their criminal acts to the internet, but also terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab who communicate through social media such as Twitter. Not just criminals, terrorists, and other groups of interest use social media, an eyewitness or passerby can become an active citizen journalist broadcasting information from the area of an incident. An eyewitness can provide information and close to real-time situational awareness to

20 emergergency services. Often, messages on Twitter or Facebook are published in advance of conventional reporting of news-media. (Omand et al., 2012, pp. 801-806) Messages on social media have enabled emergency services to receive real-time information and order and prioritise their actions taken in crisis management. (Ivan et al., , 2015, pp. 506-507).

Police departments can use social media in many different ways, these ways can be summarized in nine categories of social media activities as advised by Denef, Kaptein, Bayerl, and Ramirez (2012). Social media can be used as a source of criminal information, content on social media van be used for investigations and evidence in less urgent matters or immediately as actionable information in crisis management. Police departments should have a voice on social media, they can use social media as a tool to communicate with the public, the police should participate in discussions regarding police matters, the police should be aware of citizens performing tasks that are basically police tasks such as searching for missing persons, as this can interfere with a police investigation. Police departments can also use social media to push information, social media provides police departments with the opportunity to publish news of their own to a large audience without an intermediate party. Social media can be used to profit from the wisdom of the crowd, the public can be used to get information, responses of the public are not always digitally. Police departments can use social media to interact with the public, the communication with the public enables the police to answer questions. Social media can be used for community policing, in this case police departments have a close collaboration with the public and other organizations, policing becomes a joint effort. Police departments can show the human side of policing on social media, press announcements can be rephrased to use more accessible language to connect with the public when they are communicated on social media. Social media can be used to support the police IT infrastructure, in large-scale crises police systems such as websites can become disrupted due to limited capacity, in these cases social media can be used to deal with high demands. Finally, social media can be adapted for efficient policing, in times of shrinking budgets, police departments can use social media to increase their visibility and community presence.

2.3.3. Framework for analysis:

Social media can be used to perform many tasks in crisis management, these possibilities are roughly divided into engagement with the public, and the gathering of information. Social media allow for the emergency services to directly engage and to include the public in crisis management in new ways. The risk of misuse and reputational damage is present, and the engagements are more difficult to control. Social media enable emergency

21 services to collect recent, powerful, and possibly decisive intelligence in the interests of public safety (Bartlett et al., 2013, pp. 4-6). The use of social media in crisis management as a tool for communication or as a tool for information gathering is also reported by the Instituut Fysieke Veiligheid (2014, p. 13). It is important, just like with any other communication or crisis management tool, to note that relying on one single tool can be very risky (Helsloot et al., 2015, p. 8).

The division between using social media as a method for engaging with the public, and the gathering of information will be used as a framework for analysis in this study. Methods for using social media as a way of engaging or communicating with the public will be presented first, and the methods for using social media as a way of information gathering will be presented second.

2.3.3.1. Social media as a method of engaging with the public:

The emergency services can use social media to engage with the public. Effective engagement with the public can be achieved through a variety of methods with social media, the most important notion is that social media communications and communities are to be seen as two-way messaging. The emergency services can communicate to the public using social media, and the public can communicate with the emergency services.

The first method of engagement with the public is sharing information, the public can rapidly and directly be informed using social media as a communication tool. The information shared can be any kind of information, a report of a successful operation, a statement, a message of reassurance, or any other type of message (Bartlett et al., 2013, pp. 13-14). The information communicated through social media can also be easily disseminated directly to relevant parties such as authorities or support organisations. The contribution of social media in crisis management project provides guidelines for the use of social media as a communication tool in crisis management. These guidelines include tailoring communications with civilians to match with one of the six different roles of citizens in crisis management they distinguish. Citizens can prepare for a crisis, citizens can seek aid during a crisis, citizens can seek information during a crisis, citizens can provide aid during a crisis, citizens can help mobilizing during a crisis, and citizens can help with recording and sharing of information during a crisis. Even though communication through social media can be a valuable addition to crisis management tools, emergency services must communicate clearly that social media

22 applications and services do not replace emergency numbers. (Helsloot et al., 2015, pp. 2-3, 26-27)

The second method of engaging with the public on social media is based on the importance of accurate communication in crisis management. It is highly likely that some messages on social media communicate rumours or false information during a crisis. A way to engage with the public would be the dispelling of rumours, and proactively intervening in conversations and discussions. This can be crucial since false information can spread very rapidly on social media (Bartlett et al., 2013, p.15). Ensuring information is correct is an important task of crisis management teams and emergency services, information and misinformation should be verified, validated and / or corrected when necessary (Helsloot et al., 2015, p. 29).

A third way of engaging with the public is to actively cooperate with te public to create a cooperative product of safety and justice. This often occurs by the efforts of civilian participants, not by the emergency services. This could lead to civilians collecting evidence of criminal behaviour on social media and providing this to the emergency services and police. Emergency services must monitor this kind of engagement closely, since human rights and privacy issues might emerge in these cases (Bartlett et al., 2013, pp. 15-16). In most crises, the public are the first responders. Spontaneous contribution by citizens can greatly contribute to crisis management (Alexander, 2014, pp. 721-722). This way of using social media as a tool for information gathering is crowd-sourcing information, the community on social media is actively and directly tasked to provide a certain type of information. An example of this method is communicating photos of suspects and asking the community to help identify them (Bartlett et al., 2013, pp. 20-21). In this case there has been a request directed at the public for a certain piece of information.

The fourth way of using social media to engage with the public is setting up social media accounts to create a community of followers. This method of using social media focusses on creating, developing, and maintaining a network of followers that provide crisis management with the reach to effectively communicate. The creation of a group of followers enables the emergency services to communicate effectively and efficiently to a large group during a crisis. A group of followers should be present when a crisis happens since it is important to reach as much of the public as possible. Multiple crises showed that they caused a great increase in the number of followers for the social media accounts of emergency services, but a substantial number of followers is needed to attract and sustain a group of followers (Bartlett et al., 2013,

23 pp. 16-17). This also means that emergency services must be aware of any emergent grassroots group initiatives on social media during crises, these initiatives should be supported and encouraged. These initiatives also often arise in post-crisis situations when civilians wish to help the affected area of a crisis by providing aid, resources, or volunteering. In these cases, communication through social media can be used to direct the aid effort of civilians (Helsloot et al., 2015, pp. 31-33). Social media can increase the visibility and support for voluntary organisations and support efforts, this will empower initiatives and manage volunteering efforts. Social media can also be used to direct appeals for donations and support, messages on social media have shown in the past that the awareness to a certain issue can lead to a steep increase in donations (Alexander, 2014, p. 723).

The fifth way of using social media to engage with the public is encouraging citizens to help and inform others. Many citizens are willing to help other citizens during a crisis. A citizen could be instructed through social media to check up on neighbours not connected on social media (Helsloot et al., 2015, p. 27).

2.3.3.2. Social media as a method of gathering information:

The possibility for sharing information via social media is huge, which causes the opportunity for gathering information to be great as well. Social media can be used for gathering information in different ways. These methods are the crowdsourcing of information, and gathering information on social media (Bartlett et al., 2013, pp. 20-22). Context can be provided by using information from social media as a first glance into an issue. As a large source of information, Social media can be used as background information or contextual material from which police departments work. Social media can also provide a benchmark for cases in which only a single source of information is available, information can be verified by challenging it with information from other sources (Gibson, 2014, pp. 127-128).

The first way of using social media to crowd-source the information for crisis management is to allow citizens to communicate messages, questions, and photos during a crisis situation to help emergency services to obtain a real-time picture of the situation on the ground (Bartlett et al., 2013, pp. 20-21). Using social media as a method to listen to the public can support the effort of emergency services, this can be used as an indication of how the public is reacting and behaving during a crisis. Just listening in is the most minimal form of engagement, reciprocal listening enables emergency services to exchange messages two-way (Alexander, 2014, p.

24 720). In this case the police department creates a channel through which citizens can spontaneously send information to the police department.

The second way of using social media to collect information is to monitor social media feeds. Social media information in the context of crisis management can be used to monitor social media feeds, a significant number of messages on social media have reportedly pre-empted conventional news feeds. The information from these messages, combined with geo-location data can provide emergency services with the tools for a more rapid identification of events. This could facilitate the response time, effectiveness, and improve the agility and flexibility of emergency response (Bartlett et al., 2013, p. 21). Monitoring of social media is used to improve the way the public is managed and to improve reactions to events (Alexander, 2014, pp. 720-721). This not just concerns the pre-emption of conventional news reports, sometimes users of social media share incriminating or self-incriminating evidence. This information and evidence can be used by the police department (Reyes, 2015).

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2.4. Framework for analysis:

The previous section presented seven methods of using social media in crisis management from the perspective of a police department or law enforcement agency. These seven methods can be divided into five methods of engaging or communicating with the public using social media, and two methods of gathering information using social media.

The five methods for engaging or communicating with the public are sharing information, dispelling of rumours, cooperative production of safety and justice, creating a community of followers, and encouraging citizens to inform and help others. The two methods for gathering information using social media are gathering crowd-sourced information and monitoring social media feeds. These methods provide a framework for analysis for the selected cases of crisis management of major disturbances of public order that involved violence by police departments. This framework provides a basis for comparison of the selected cases. The framework for analysis is visualised in Figure 1. Each of these seven methods will be detailed briefly, indicators and important characteristics will be identified which will help in assessing the cases.

Engaging with the community Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5

Sharing information

Dispelling of rumours

Cooperative product of safety

and justice Community of followers Encouraging citizens Information gathering Crowd-sourced information Monitoring of feeds

Figure 1. Visualisation of Framework for Analysis.

2.4.1. Sharing information:

This part of the framework will look at sharing information as a method for engaging with the community during a major disturbance of public by the police departments. Whether or not the police departments shared information, what kind of information the police departments shared, and how this information was shared will be looked at within this part of the framework. Other factors that will be considered are the timeliness of sharing the information, and if the police departments informed the public without gaps of knowledge.

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2.4.2. Dispelling of rumours:

The first thing that will be looked at in this part of the framework is whether the police departments identified rumours or false information on social media during a major disturbance of public order. In case the police departments did find rumours or false information, this part will focus on how the police departments dispelled these rumours or misinformation.

2.4.3. Cooperative product of safety and justice:

This part of the framework focusses on cooperation between the public and police departments. Did civilians collect information, images, recordings, or evidence? Was this information provided to the police departments? The motivation behind the information provided will also be looked at. Were civilians tasked, asked, or requested to gather and provide the information or did they do so on their own accord?

2.4.4. Community of followers:

Using a community of followers as a method for engaging with the community during a major disturbance of public order will be the point of focus in this part of the framework. This part will look at when the community of followers was created by the police departments, before the start of the crisis or during the crisis. As well as the development of this community of followers during the major disturbance of public order.

2.4.5. Encouraging citizens:

This part of the framework focusses on using the method of encouraging citizens using social media during a major disturbance of public order. Did the police departments engage or encourage the public to take actions such as passing information along, checking up on neighbours, or making sure others are all right?

2.4.6. Crowd-sourced information:

Within the framework to look at police departments during major disturbances of public order, this is the first method of gathering information. This part will look at whether the police departments could be contacted on social media, and if applicable, did the police departments do anything with information provided.

2.4.7. Monitoring of feeds:

This part of the framework looks at monitoring of feeds as a method for information gathering by the police departments during major disturbances op public order. The focus of this part will be whether police departments monitored social media feeds to collect

27 information. This part will also look at what kind of information is monitored, is the information, message, picture, video, or recording shared on social media by eyewitnesses, or is the information shared by the perpetrators themselves? This could be in the form of a manifest, or self-incriminating content and evidence.

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3. Research design:

To get a better understanding of the use of social media for purposes of crisis management, this research project is set up as a qualitative multiple case study. This study is descriptive and comparative in nature because the use of social media in crisis management is a recent development that has grown in importance over the last ten years, this study aims to map the use of social media, and compare the use of social media in various cases over time. By exploring these aspects of social media and crisis management an attempt will be made to add to the body of knowledge.

Multiple existing cases will be studied to explore the use of social media in crisis management. These cases will be analysed using a framework created with the methods of using social media in crisis management derived from the body of literature in chapter 2. Multiple case studies will be studied because crisis management and the use of social media might have developed over time. The crises selected all are cases of major disturbances of public order involving some kind of violence. These cases are all man-made crises. These different crises have at least one thing in common, the use of social media by civilians, and in some cases by emergency services.

The research will have be based on qualitative research methods, these methods provide the tools to find the background of the issue at hand, to find the reasons behind why certain decisions were made, and to find insights in the benefits, limitations, and possibilities of social media in crisis management. The research will use qualitative methods to compare cases, quantitative comparisons are not applicable due to the nature of the research subject.

The research is an inductive study. The aim is to analyse and compare different cases and find how police departments used or did not use social media in the case of major disturbances of public order. This comparison and analysis of the use of social media in crisis management of major disturbances of public order could then be the starting point for further research of the use of social media with other emergency services or in other kinds of crisis management cases.

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3.1. Case selection:

The cases for this research were selected by comparing the nature of the crisis which was managed in that particular example of crisis management. The nature of these cases is that they are all violent major disturbances of public order. The cases selected cover major disturbances of public order within crisis management.

First of all, the cases selected have had to have taken place after 2006, the year in which social media applications and services became largely and openly available and the number of users started to grow (Perrin, 2015). The cases could also not have been too recent, since a detailed analysis of events or evaluation study was necessary to effectively analyse different cases. The cases selected have all taken place in western-oriented countries to make sure the cases are comparable.

The cases selected are the 2007 Virginia Tech Shooting, the 2011 England Riots, the 2013 Boston Bombings, the 2016 Brussels Attacks, and the 2017 Manchester Bombing.

These cases are comparable since they share the characteristic of high levels of violence and public disorder. The nature of the violence may differ, but the situation and circumstances during these events were similar. A school shooting, nationwide rioting, and terrorist attacks are all major disturbances of public order. The cases will be covered in chronological order.

3.2. Data collection:

The data in this research will be collected through a literature review. Documents, articles, publications, reports, internet sources, studies, evaluations, and other sources will be studied, analysed, and compared by applying a framework of methods of using social media in crisis management, and to apply this framework to the selected cases. Existing case studies will be the focus of the research, especially analysis or evaluation reports of the cases will be analysed carefully. The data collection for the cases will be structured through a framework of sub-questions that will contribute to answering the main research question.

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3.3. Limitations:

The first and foremost limitation of this study is the selection of cases used to compare the use of social media in crisis management during major disturbances of public order. These cases have all taken place in western countries, while ignoring the practice of crisis management in other countries. This means that the conclusion of the research will also be limited to the cases in the countries analysed. It off course is always risky to try to generalize from a limited case study, but this is necessary for a comparative study. Case studies and samples are always limited, this is an unavoidable characteristics fact of case studies and samples. The generalisation could possibly provide a general or common rule for crisis management during major disturbances of public order in western countries.

Another issue that occurs while researching crisis management is the availability of data, many countries consider their crisis management structures a secret since adversaries might try to use weaknesses in the system. This secrecy is most visible in the part considering the intelligence gathering of social media. The use of social media as a means of communication is not limited by this kind of secrecy. This limitation is overcome by steering clear of the practical uses and methods, and focussing on the theoretical uses, benefits, and limitations.

The availability of information also is a limitation of this study, just like in open-source intelligence, the availability of information is staggering. The difficulty lies in identifying the meaningful sources and eliminating the useless ones. The theme of social media has lately been a popular subject for publications of any sort, relevant sources must be selected critically. The research methods selected, combined with the chosen method of analysis should provide the right tools to answer the research question.

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4. Case study results:

4.1. Virginia Tech Shooting:

The Virginia Tech Shooting of April 16, 2007 was a double murder and mass school shooting in which a single gunman shot 49 students and staff, of which 32 were killed. The shooting was the largest single act of violence at an American university. The shooting ended when the gunman committed suicide. The gunman, Sueng-Hui Cho, sent written and videotaped materials to the media after killing his first and second victim. Then he proceeded with killing the next thirty students and university staff (Flynn & Heitzmann, 2008, p. 479). The first incident, the double murder, occurred between 7 and 7:15AM in a student dormitory. The gunman continued by sending a manifesto to the media at 9:01AM at the local post office, and then proceeded to kill 30 more people in a school building during classes (Johnson, 2007). This case is especially interesting because traditional news media reported on students using social media as a tool for communication relatively quick, this news coverage was noticed by a ConnectivIT Lab research group at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the United States of America. This research group recognised the importance of this development and started monitoring and archiving social media communications during the Virginia Tech Shooting (Palen, Vieweg, Liu, & Hughes, 2009, p. 470).

4.1.1. Social media and the Virginia Tech Shooting:

Students and staff used social media in different ways. At first, conventional communication methods were unavailable due to the telephone networks being flooded with calls, this made students turn to other communication methods. Text messaging and instant messaging were used to contact friends and check in on them, but this passive communication method also created immediate awareness. Instant messaging services show online and active users, students interpreted this as the presence of others, the person had to be online and not injured or worse. Facebook groups were also used to detect who was safe by monitoring online activity (Palen et al, 2009, p. 474). Students used Facebook to keep in touch since it was hard to get in touch with people through the busy telephone network (Mayerowitz, 2007).

Students started to edit the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Wikipedia page to contribute information, the names of the deceased gained special attention. University officials held a press conference at noon on the day of the crisis, this press conference was used to announce and confirm the number of people killed and injured. This motivated the students to start converging information and to build lists of the victims of the crisis. The group of

32 students using social media had correctly identified the 32 victims of the crisis before the university released a confirmed list. (Palen et al, 2009, p. 474-476).

The Commonwealth of Virginia and the Governor ordered a full review panel to report on the mass shooting at Virginia Tech, the report was presented in August 2007, and the Addendum to the report was presented in November 2009. These reports do not mention any use of social media by the Virginia Tech Police Department and the Blacksburg Police Department (Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2007; Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2009). Since the official Commonwealth of Virginia Review Panel Report on the mass shooting at Virginia Tech does not mention the use of social media by the Virginia Tech Police Department and the Blacksburg Police Department, the following methods will be filled in using what could have been done according to reports, publications, and articles.

4.1.1.1. Sharing information:

There is no data supporting the idea that the Virginia Tech Police Department or the Blacksburg Police Department used social media to share information. The Virginia Tech police chief intended and was authorized to send an emergency message to all students and staff, but the police did not have the technical means to do so. Only two other university officials were in possession of the codes to send a message. The report does not specify what kind of emergency message this entails (Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2007, p. 16). The two police departments merely used the public address speaker system in their cars to give clear instructions to the students in the immediate area (Burton, 2007).

4.1.1.2. Dispelling of rumours:

The content that was generated on Social Media during the Virginia Tech Shooting and its aftermath was mostly correct, or immediately corrected by other users of social media. One rumour that could not be corrected quickly was the identity of the shooter, the wrong student was blamed because he had photos of him with a large gun on his Facebook profile page. This rumour was even copied by Fox News. When the student noticed the mix-up, he quickly posted a message that he could not have been the shooter since the shooter killed himself after the mass shooting. This rumour was not noticed by the police departments involved in the Virginia Tech Shooting (Gohring, 2007).

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4.1.1.3. Cooperative product of safety and justice:

To some extent, this method of using social media was used by students and faculty, but the information did not make its way to the police department. Students and staff used social media applications and services to pass along information amongst each other (Palen et al, 2009, pp. 470-471). The students made a substantial contribution to crisis management by identifying victims and missing students, but emergency services and emergency management did not benefit from this source of information. The students and university staff improved the compiled information through the process of peer review. The students and faculty compiled information on social media services and applications such as Facebook and Wikipedia, the users of these social media did discuss their communication channels and communication with formal police channels, but for an unpublished reason, the information was not picked up in the police department’s crisis management (Palen et al, 2009, pp. 475-478).

4.1.1.4. Community of followers:

There is no data supporting the idea that the Virginia Tech Police Department or the Blacksburg Police Department used social media to create and engage a community of followers (Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2007; Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2009). Facebook groups were created by students and attracted thousands of members within hours (Palen et al, 2009, p. 476).

4.1.1.5. Encourage citizens to inform and help others:

There is no data supporting the idea that the Virginia Tech Police Department or the Blacksburg Police Department used social media to encourage citizens to inform and help others (Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2007; Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2009). Palen et al (2009, p. 471) describe the existence of many Facebook groups in which students, friends, and family report that they are OK, or ask if someone is OK. This was initiated by the social media users themselves and was not encouraged by the police departments involved.

4.1.1.6. Collect crowd-sourced information:

As stated earlier, the crowd of students and faculty compiled information on various social media applications and services, but the information did not reach formal channels and the police departments during the crisis (Palen et al, 2009, p. 475). Reports were filed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) via email or a complaint form on their website, these reports mostly included background information about the perpetrator (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007).

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4.1.1.7. Monitor Social Networks:

According to the FBI’s Criminal Investigative file on the mass murder at Virginia Tech, someone anonymously announced the killing at Virginia Tech on the social network 4chan around two hours before the double murder occurred in the university dorm. A user of another social media application, the Chief Delphi forum, posted that they had found the announcement on 4chan. The Criminal Investigative file does not elaborate on how the FBI became aware of this message on the social media application Chief Delphi or 4chan, as well as on how the person that posted the announcement on the Chief Delphi forum found the announcement (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007, pp. 5-7).

4.1.2. Take-aways:

One of the limitations to the use of social media in the crisis management of the Virginia Tech Shooting was that emergency services did not know where to look. The case of the Virginia Tech Shooting is best characterized by students and staff using social media applications and services to pass along information amongst each other. The students made a substantial contribution to crisis management by identifying victims and missing students, but emergency services and emergency management did not benefit from this source of information (Palen et al, 2009, pp. 470-471, 476-478). The group involved in compiling the information was self-policing and self-correcting, misinformation was discredited, and correct information was validated by the group members. The compiled information was flawless due to the peer-review (Gohring, 2007).