ABSTRACT
Chapter Objectives ◾ To understand the basic foundations of social media and Web 2.0 applications ◾ To identify the basic characteristics of social networks, microblogs, and blogs ◾ To identify the utilization of photo-and video-sharing sites ◾ To understand the application of tags, keywords, and other categorical devices ◾ To review the emergency management systematic applications of social media
Foundations of Social Media As described in Chapter 1, social media and Web 2.0 technologies are based on a wide-ranging spectrum of historic events, processes, concepts, and theories of utilization. Perhaps the most signi„cant of these was the development of the World Wide Web in 1991. is established a common process for individual citizens and
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DISASTER FOCUS: H1N1 PANDEMIC INFLUENZA
By mid-March 2009 the Mexican government „rst reported in§uenza-like illnesses impacting the local population. By mid-April 2009, more than 850 cases of pneumonia and nearly 60 pneumonia-related deaths had occurred in Mexico City alone. Unfortunately, these cases were not limited to Mexico City and were quickly spreading throughout the country. ey were quickly reported as in§uenza, but the particular strain was not identi„ed until a few days later when the United States also reported similar cases. is H1N1 “swine §u” quickly spread through the United States. Initially there were two deaths in the United States-a Mexican toddler who was visiting relatives in Texas and a 33-year-old American woman in Texas. In both cases there were underlying health conditions that contributed to their deaths. By late April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorization for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). Tami§u (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir) were prepared from the SNS inventory for distribution and use in response to the growing number of cases. Days after this authorization, school districts in central and north Texas as well as other parts of the United States closed all schools and sporting events in response to H1N1 in§uenza cases appearing in their student populations. Over the next six weeks, the H1N1 outbreak continued to spread through countries in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and was ultimately declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on June 11, 2009.2 Because this event was multijurisdictional and required the response of multiple disciplines to ensure response was consistent and ešective, many hospitals, health departments, and other peripheral health-support agencies turned to the utilization of social media to proliferate messages about preparedness and response related to H1N1. Most prevalent of these was the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) use of Twitter, YouTube, Widgets, RSS feeds, and internet-based maps to provide real-time response information, generating both situational awareness and speci„c protective action recommendations to the general public (Figure 2.1). For instance, between March 2009 and July 2009, the CDC’s Twitter page jumped from approximately 1,000 followers to over 500,000 followers.3 Clearly the utilization of a range of social media and Web 2.0 technologies during this global emergency helped meet the need and desire for information from the general public.
