Utilization of Social Media in the East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and its Effectiveness

Abstract

During the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, newly popular social media such as Twitter and Facebook served as a lifeline for directly affected individuals, a means of information sharing, and a way for people inside and outside Japan to volunteer and to provide information-based support to affected individuals. Social media was used to perform vital relief functions such as safety identification, displaced-persons locating, damage information provision, support for disabled individuals, volunteer organization, fund-raising, and moral support systems. This study discusses the potential for public, civil society, and government organizations to utilize social media in disaster preparedness and response.

Why I Retweet? Exploring Users Perspective on Decision-Making of Information Spreading during Disasters

“…Twitter serves many roles, for example as a social sensor to detect earthquake events [2], to facilitate the transmission of rumors [3], to influence social and political awareness [4], to act as a news medium [5] and also to coordinate humanitarian relief during disaster responses [6]. Several studies in the literature discuss the effectiveness of social media in providing updated information and engaging with citizens during disasters such as during the Victorian bushfire [7], the Haitian Earthquake [6], The Great East Japan Earthquake [8,9,10] and Hurricane Sandy [11].…”

Monitoring and Assessing Post-Disaster Tourism Recovery Using Geotagged Social Media Data

“…Flickr photos were also adopted as an alternative to official sources to inform the public during the 2007 Zaca wildfire in Southern California as described by Goodchild and Glennon [2]. Regarding tsunamis, Peary et al [22] discussed the potential of utilizing social media in the related preparedness and response by public, civil society, and government organizations in Japan. Takahashi et al [23] explored how people communicated using Twitter during the immediate aftermath of typhoon Haiyan, which pummeled the Philippines in 2013.…”

The use of social media in public health surveillance

“…displaced people, as seen with the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, 12 and the 2010 Haitian earthquake.…”