Comments on: Swine Flu Showing The Best – And Worst – Of Social Media In A Crisis

By: This discussion is not your usual pig in a poke « Media Bullseye – A New Media and Communications Magazine

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:42:14 +0000

[...] crisis, from both a traditional communications perspective and a social media perspective. Does social media help, or hurt, the ability to disseminate accurate [...]

By: Dave Fleet

Dave Fleet — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:25:55 +0000

Jewel – there are a few reasons why Twitter is a good addition (not replacement) in this kind of situation.

#1: Real-time – I’m not going to go to the WHO site every few minutes to see if there’s an update. Social media tools like Twitter (and RSS feeds too) help people to receive new updates as they happen.

#2: Distribution: Twitter now pushes out to both Bell and Rogers mobiles so you don’t need to even be at your computer (not essential in this situation but consider a wildfire or other rapidly evolving situation).

#3: Interactivity: They’re not using it in this way at this time, but using conversational tools can permit organizations to correct misinformation, which is critical in emergencies.

There are other ways that this kind of tool can be useful. Remember, it’s an additional tool, not a replacement for prompt, clear and timely updates to the main website.

By: Jewels

Jewels — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:51:38 +0000

Dave, in a case like the swine flu outbreak, can you please explain what the benefit of using Twitter is? Why would a reader go to Twitter to find out the WHO’s latest news on the swine flu when s/he could easily go on the WHO’s website? It seems to be that Twitter is an unnecessary middle-man to getting the information. Can you please address this? THanks.

By: Alphonse Ha

Alphonse Ha — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:17:51 +0000

You haven’t mentionned Wikipedia and how fast the information about Swine flu can be reported. Think Youtube as well.

I was talking about it with my roommate and just 5 years ago, it would not have been possible to get such detailed information, such as medical information about the virus, how it spreads, the history etc so quickly. Now with Wikipedia, the information can be received withing hours if not minutes. Truly incredible.

By: Kt D

Kt D — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:40:01 +0000

Well, Twitter is obviously a great way to keep updated on everything–whether completely accurate or not. But then, it is quite easy to switch to a trusted news source or blogger’s twitter page and see their reportage of the development. One site that provides good summary videos of recent changes in this swine flu–or rather, “H1N1″ virus–is newsy.com (newsydotcom on Twitter). They provide a summation of multiple sources in attempts to remain unbiased, and their videos are short/interesting to watch. Here’s the link to their most recent flu video over the recent name change debates:

http://www.newsy.com/videos/swine_flu_gets_a_makeover/

By: Swine flu hogwash and the mass media | nitch*

Swine flu hogwash and the mass media | nitch* — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:56:53 +0000

[...] to interact with civilization I find myself being updated on what’s new with it. Even tech blogs and podcasts, where I spend most of my time have gotten into the act of telling us more and more [...]