Crowdsourcing
In times of crisis
Crowdsourcing, a term coined by journalism professor, Jeff Howe in the prenatal digital era of 2006, suggests that crowdsourcing is a way to describe an online “...community, or “crowd”, invited to participate in tasks typically completed by organisations or by specialists” (Shepherd, H. 2012).
Comprising the term initially for Wired magazine in 2006, Howe created a framework to which like minded people were able to engage and connect with each other through the use of social media platforms to perform tasks.
Our interconnected online age has enabled crowdsourcing to become a more heavily reliant method of stringing masses of people together to achieve goals, using the three [web] key elements of “the crowd, the outsourcing model and advanced Internet technologies” (Poblet, M, 2014, p.4) to disseminate vital information.
The birth of the web has allowed crowdsourcing to take place across digital platforms, [generally positively] affecting users well beyond the screens of social media with its ability to distribute crucial information in times of crisis.
When disaster took place in the 2011 South-Eastern Queensland floods, social media platform Twitter arose to the scene, being used as a central coordinating technique for flood-related matters.
With a recorded “35,000 tweets” circulating the hashtag “#qldfloods between January 10-16″ (Bruns, A, 2012, p.7), social media was used as a predominant tool to keep citizens up-to-date with the natural disaster.
A form of crowdsourcing is evident here, with twitter users re-tweeting- and by that- passing on existing knowledge of the situation to the broader public, to increase and share awareness of the issue.
Not only did this result in a rise in Twitter use as a means of informing public knowledge, but the way in which it affected mainstream media services such as Queensland Police Service Media Unit (@QPSMedia) was vastly affected.
Social media in this instance allowed @QPSMedia to “dissemin[ate] timely and relevant information to the public...coordinating and guiding wider discussion” (Bruns, A, 2012, p.8).
In other words, QPS Media’s online presence, allowed news to be further reached by a greater public who were directly affected by the circumstance, providing an efficient and proactive way to inform citizens.
Image; read more: xhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-11/how-twitter-covered-the-queensland-floods/3767166
Fast-forwarding years later, disaster communication via social media has increasingly been implemented by various organisations- such as the Australian Broadcasting Cooperation (ABC)- as a way to more successfully reach publics during critical times.
National broadcaster ‘ABC News’ has progressively altered its way of providing and seeking disaster-related information, stating on a 2012 report that they have established an array of accounts on social media platforms to ensure a greater means of publics are reached and kept with recent findings.
The ABC report highlights the importance of social media use during crises, re-affirming the vast influence that regularly updating status’ on a short and concise basis can have, as “...people don’t have the time to sift through a lot of text to find the crux” (The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 2012, p.36)- especially in times of emergencies.
Although social media can be vital in disseminating news during disasters of all kinds, mainstream media services are still heavily reliant on as a (trustworthy) channel to get key messages across.
So where does this leave us?
It can be said that whilst crowdsourcing through the general public contributes greatly to spreading important messages, the presence of regarded authorities on social media enables disasters and or events to reach publics in the most effective and positive way.