Media, Technology, and Crises

Media and technology have grown into the standard that is commonly used by individuals in modern society. Their roles have the utmost significance in the business sphere, personal relationships, and also in public spaces. With media and technology being used with such frequency, it's almost never turned "off " in our lives (Smith, 2012).

When dealing with crisis communication, technology now has a counterpart that now plays a pivotal role in distributing information. That counterpart is social media. The distribution of stories or information regarding a crisis was once a primary role of and limited to radio and news broadcasts on television. Now, in this modern era, the roles have been reversed. Radio and television are now secondary in terms of the distribution of news, and technology via social media has moved into the primary role. Twitter is one of the platforms in which individuals and public affairs professionals utilize as a resource to receive the latest happenings in our world (Baron & Philbin, 2009). Our society has allowed Twitter and other platforms to be the informant of news because students, as well as other individuals in society, would much rather check their social media accounts than look or listen to what's going on in the world via radio or television (Baron & Philbin, 2009). It seems to be more convenient to find out things from social networks because its easily accessible from a cell phone, and an individual's cell phone is with them twenty-four hours a day in this era.
Another way to assist crisis communication management is to utilize social media when implementing drills that will be used when things could go wrong (Baron & Philbin, 2009). "Realistic drills are the best way of evaluating the readiness of an organization to respond to an actual crisis" (Baron & Philbin, 2009). The ability to disseminate information across multiple platforms is essential to utilizing the many uses of social media (Baron &m Philbin, 2009). But it doesn't stop there. The drills enable organization's to test the responses of three critical elements: policies, plans, and people. For policies, are the right policies in place to handle the given situation? For planning, does the crisis communication plan incorporate monitoring, active engagement with relevant sites, and the use of innovative social media? And lastly, for people, are the individuals who're responsible for responding to the crisis familiar with social media and its culture? And will their responses be engaging while maintaining the values and priorities of the culture (Baron & Philbin, 2009)? The ability for an organization to answer these questions, along with establishing social media as a mainstay of its priorities is definitely a positive trend. Its a positive trend because of its frequent use and its instant access to individuals around the world.


Baron, G. & Philbin, J. (2009). Social media in crisis communication: Start with a drill. Public Relations Tactics, 16:4. Retrieved from
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=74d183d2-a4d7-4776-bef6-868e127ed16f%40sessionmgr4004&vid=2&hid=4101


Smith, C. (2012). The role of communication technology in today's society. CSEDEV. Retrieved from
http://www.csedev.com/the-role-of-communication-technology-in-today%E2%80%99s-society/