Social media in emergency management advances, challenges and future directions

Natural and man-made disasters are an inevitable part of our lives. Therefore, emergency management strategies are developed to mitigate the impact of these unfortunate events. The introduction of social media into the domain of emergency management may bring several benefits. For instance, governments disseminate information regarding an incident to the community, citizens communicate their current status to family and friends, and also community members coordinate with each other. While there are obvious advantages to utilizing social media during emergency situations, there are risks as well. The efficacy of an emergency response approach that leverages social media is contingent upon the quality and credibility of the information transmitted via social media. Potential issues include misinterpretation by the public, false alarms, and the spread of counterproductive rumors. This paper presents a review of the recent literature and proposes a research framework to understand the influence and challenges of social media in the domain of emergency management.