Articles
Abstract
The use of social media in a public emergency is dated back to the terrorist attacks (2001) in the United States. Since then, it is has been used to effectively manage critical happenings in public emergency or disaster events and also for managing future public emergencies. Unfortunately, the underdeveloped countries are far behind in the race to enhance infrastructures that would mitigate or avert critical events from happening. The effects of social media are keyed to public emergencies as it allows the instant flow of communication to a broader population, helps government or organizations locate those affected by the disaster, and to help further those organizations to manage the available resources allocated to that public emergencies effectively. It can be exploiting the appropriate social media tools focusing on the use of ICT before, during, or after the emergency crisis.
Furthermore, the exponential increase in fake news of modern times is a concern for government and organizations handling the public emergency crisis. The politicization of national issues is another limitation, as they help to spread fake news and unfounded rumors to score political gain during a public emergency crisis. The research concludes that social media is a valuable tool to mitigate or avert public emergency if there are enhanced infrastructures backed with strong laws that would punish fake news/rumors perpetrators and future potentials of social media.
