Crisis Communication - How Will Russia be Covered?

In light of recent world events and my current essay-writing status, it's important to ponder how new communications technologies can be used in crisis situations. In researching how technology has effected the work of public practitioners, I came across an article entitled RUOK? Blogging Communication Technologies During Crises, by Mike Thelwall and David Stuart. Among other things, this academic journal article examines how new technologies were used in three of the most globally recognized crises in recent years, the 2005 London subway bombings, the New Orlenas hurricane and the Pakistan-Kashmir earthquake.

In a crisis, communication is critical and the evolution of the Internet provides the opportunity for more people to be informed more quickly from many different sources. New technologies such as blogs can influence what is reported, how it's reported the type of organization that reports it, the program format in which it's presented and the politics of the events reported. In the cases of the crises investigated, three forms of crisis media emerged including Wikipedia, Wikinews and Flickr. In particular, these new forms of media were used for sharing information and finding out facts concerning the initial event, afterwards however mainstream sources were able to deal most effectively with news coverage of its aftermath.

In terms of mass media, international broadcasters were represented during all three of these crises including BBC, CNN and Sky. In New Orleans, it was indicated that many local news stations were also sought after, but not in the London bombings or the earthquake. In the article, it is suggested that local media was more popular during the hurricane as it was a faster-moving crisis in nature and therefore real-time information may have been more critical.

Overall, the article indicated that the precise mix of communications technologies seemed to depend on the nature of the crisis, Wikipedia and Wikinews were only significantly present for London, local news was most important during the hurricane and no news was significantly more important than the other during the earthquake coverage in Pakistan.

What happened today in Moscow was horrific, and within time pieces of information will filter through the different mediums to reach global audiences. During this crisis, will blogs and mainstream media continue to be important, or will Twitter have it's place in communicating information about the crisis - from what I've seen today on Twitter, it already has it's place in crisis communication. With the widespread use of YouTube, and our obsession with seeing live footage, perhaps YouTube will provide the cutting edge, such as with this video below.



Personally, as I sit here in my parka in chilly Canada, I'm tuned into the BBC live-feed. Advances in technology force us to be more connected and less ignorant about the world we live in.