Saving Lives 2.0:How Social Media will Change Disasters and

ResponseJames Garrow

Philadelphia Department of Public Health

Introductions

@jgarrowhttp://about.me/jgarrow

History

AllDisasters

AreLocal

2001

2005

2010

Social Media

4/2012, Pew Internet & American Life Project

78%

More than 2/3!

More than 4/5!

2/2013, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Only demographic under 52%

Between six and eleven percent of Americans would interrupt sex to

check social media messages!

Information Seeking in a Disaster

Wow, that’s low!

Wow, that’s high!

8/2012, American Red Cross

Red Cross Survey• 12% of the American public has

used social media in a disaster• After seeing emergency info on a social media site, 77% have checked on their family and friends• Nearly 40% would use social media to let loved ones know they were safe after a disaster

“Global” Disasters

Social media has brought every disaster into our

living rooms

Social media has shown us the after-effects of

every disaster

Social media has allowed us to participate in every

disaster

How Disasters Happen, Are Responded To, and

Remembered has Changed

1. Information to the Public

2. Information from the Public

3. The Public as Responders

Information to the Public

Emily Rahimi@FDNY

Information from the Public

The Public as Responders

"One of those trucks went across the bridge!" she told me. "Wow. Even the school bus doesn't cross that bridge. It's not designed for large trucks.

When we saw them going up that road, we wanted to run out and wave our hands, yelling wrong way, wrong way!“

-hinessight.blogs.com

Wrap-up

The world has changed.

Every bit of it.

Disasters are no longerover there.

They are here. Now.In real living color.

We can use social mediato deal with thosedisasters, today.

We just need to embrace it.