“It’s not an option to not be there” : Finnish communicators’ perceptions of social media and user-generated content in risk and crisis situations

During the last years, social media has become an essential tool in risk and crisis communication. Ideally, social media enables journalists, authorities and other communicators to communicate quickly and efficiently to the members of the public. Communicators can also benefit from content social media users post online in risk and crisis situations. However, in addition to opportunities, social media may also bring challenges and problems for crisis management organizations. This thesis addresses some of the opportunities and challenges that have emerged regarding social media and user-generated content in risk and crisis communication. Different aspects of social media and user-generated content are examined through qualitative interviews with a group of communicators who work in Finnish organizations. The findings show that social media have an increasingly important role in risk and crisis communication. According to the interviewees, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Many participants perceived that the interaction between the organization and the public had improved due to social media. Nonetheless, the dominating communication models used in risk and crisis situation seem to be one-way or two-way asymmetrical communication. Social media was seen as a way to correct misconceptions, which is has also been suggested by previous studies. At the same time, one can say that the possibility to, for example, send private messages on Facebook to authorities and other organizations may have brought them closer to the citizens. In addition to the organizations social media use, the use of user-generated content was examined. The findings show that the organizations do not utilize all available potential, due to different reasons like a lack of time, resources or interest. However, the interviewees expressed that user-generated content in the future may become a more important origin of information. The organizations also use user-generated content to improve the situational awareness. Many of the participating organizations follow the discussions online closely. It can decrease the risk of a reputational crisis since the organizations have a better understanding of what stakeholders think. A third aspect examined in this thesis is the cooperation between the organizations and volunteer groups formed on social media. Volunteering online was not a familiar phenomenon to most participants, but organizations that were involved in the refugee crisis in 2015 had encounter such groups. Based on the interviews, it became clear that better processes are needed for successful cooperation. There are, however, major challenges related to, e.g., responsibilities and organizing the volunteer work. This thesis can be seen as a preliminary exploration of how Finnish organizations use user-generated content in risk and crisis communication. There is a need to continue the research on user-generated content and how it can be effectively used in crisis management