Health-related disaster communication and social media (research up to 2016)
Citation: Eckert S, Sopory P, Day A, et al. Health-related disaster communication and social media: a mixed-method systematic review. Health Communication. 2018;33(12):1389-400.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: World Health Organization.
What is this? Health protection and the mitigation of misinformation are important components of making health systems resilient to the impacts of disasters and other health emergencies.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for information about social media practices that can promote health protection and help counter misinformation during disasters. They restricted their searches to articles published in 2003 to 2016 in any UN languages. They included 79 studies, which were published in Arabic (3 studies), Chinese (2), English (69), French (4) and Spanish (1).
What was found: Social media is valuable for first responders and the public to track public reactions to crises and disasters, facilitating citizen communication and raising awareness.
Social media can supplement traditional communication means during crises and it is important to create partnerships with traditional media sources before crises occur to better leverage their social media presence during disasters.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that social media should be used by global, regional and local government agencies, first responders, healthcare practitioners and the public to monitor public reactions during a disaster; to provide accurate, timely and transparently sourced information; to create situational awareness; to support peer-to-peer communication and aid among the public; and to solicit responses from those at the site of the disaster.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of place of residence, education, socioeconomic status, language, and personal characteristics (such as vulnerable populations who are elderly, disabled, low-income, and displaced).
This summary was prepared by Jawaria Karim, checked by Cristián Mansilla and Ana Beatriz Pizarro, and finalized by Mike Clarke.