Broadcast, promote, respond, engage: Competing understandings of the purpose and value of social media in an emergency management organisation

This project examined the use of social media in emergency management organisations. It involved an organisational ethnography conducted at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, observing and participating in their use of social media for a period of two years. This thesis found that the organisational restructure that occurred during the study had a direct and disruptive effect on their use of social media, and describes how the organisation largely normalised (rather than adapted to) social media. In doing so, the organisation's efforts to engage in a two-way conversation with their audience were secondary to their one-way communication responsibilities