Mobile Phone Cultures and the

Reporting of Crises and Disasters

“The Mourning After: A case study of social media in

the 3.11 earthquake disaster in Japan”

Larissa Hjorth and Yonnie Kyoung-hwa

Page Nelson30 August 2012

• How did we previously communicate with each other during natural disasters?• Written mail• Telephone• Newspapers• Television

Remediation

What makes the postcard the “first step” towards new media?

The Postcard

Joseph (2012) Allan et al. (2007) This article believes that “new media do not make revolutions happen,they…frame how they are conceptualized and experienced in different ways”

The Remediation of “People Power”

What is it? “Geographic and physical space is overlaid

with an electronic position and relational presence, which is emotional and social”

“Technological, geographic, socioeconomic and psychological mobility”

“Intimate Publics”

Mobile Intimacy

“Being here yet there” “Perpetual contact” YouTube Twitter ESRI Ushahidi Person Finder (Google)

Copresence

Hours after the 3.11 earthquake, more than 9,000 earthquake videos and 7,000 tsunami videos were already posted on YouTube Earthquake in Japan: YouTube Documents Qu

ake

Copresence: YouTube

Hashtag: #prayforjapan Rescue efforts Tweets to @AmbassadorRoos Disneyland twitpic

Copresence: Twitter

Tweetdeck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h-To6EXc3w

August 2011 earthquake on USA’s East Coast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZcLboTRTDQ @JesseCFriedman I saw the tweets from DC about

earthquake, then 15 seconds later felt it in NYC. Social media is faster than seismic waves!

@RyanPraskievicz I read about this earthquake on twitter before I felt the tremble. New tech beats old tech... Again.

@Kandoh Haha! I was able to read about the earthquake on Twitter right before I felt it! I love living in the future.

“Social media is faster than seismic waves”

3.11 earthquake: A social media map was created that “resonate[d] with the cries of people caught up in the crisis, through their tweets, Flickr photos and YouTube videos”

Map has now been taken down from the website, however I found screenshot of the map in action during the 3.11 earthquake

Copresence: ESRI

Ushahidi 3.11 earthquake

“8,000 reports were received via social media about shelters, food stores, cell phone charging centers and road closures”

Copresence: Ushahidi

The Japan 3.11 person finder has been deactivated but the basic one still exists: Google Person Finder

Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake (Google)

Grief management New media = “too direct and vocal” Lack of face-to-face contact

“Authenticity” of social media websites and information

“Congested networks”

Limits of social mobile media

Personal experience with social mobile media during flooding crisis when I was traveling in Thailand

@RichardBarrow

Conclusion

Allan, Stuart, Prasun Sonwalkar and Cynthia Carter. (2007). Bearing witness: citizen journalism and human rights issues. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 5(3): 373-389.

Bruns, A. (2010). From reader to Writer: Citizen journalism as news produsage. In Husinger, Jeremy, Klastrup, Lisbeth, & Allen, Matthew (Eds.) Internet Research Handbook. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 119-134. Retrieved from http://snurb.info/files/2010/From%20Reader%20to%20Writer.pdf

Ford, R. (2011, August 23). Earthquake: Twitter Users Learned of Tremors Seconds Before Feeling Them. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 24, 2012 from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/earthquake-twitter-users-learned-tremors-226481

Joseph, S. (2012). ‘Social Media, Political Change, and Human Rights’, Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, 35, 145-188.

Hjorth, Larissa and Kim, Kyoung-hwa Yonnie. (2011). The Mourning After: A case study of social media in the 3.11 earthquake disaster in Japan. Television and New Media, 12(6): 552-559.

MySecureCyberspace (n.d.). Trends in Social Media: Use in Natural Disasters. MySecureCyberspace: Trends in Social Media: Use in Natural Disasters. Retrieved August 24, 2012 from http://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/articles/classroom/trends-in-social-media-use-in-natural-disasters.html

Nguyen, T. (2011, April 12). Social media comes to aid of Japan. Ted Nyugen USA. Retrieved August 24, 2012 from http://www.tednguyenusa.com/social-media-helps-japan/

Sternberg, S. (2011, April 11). Social media map plots a Japan beyond geography. USA Today. Retrieved August 26, 2012 from http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-04-11-japan-social-media-map_esri_N.htm

TheAustralian (2012, March 27). Using social media during natural disasters is comforting, empowering, study finds. The Australian. Retrieved August 25, 2012 from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/using-social-media-during-natural-disasters-is-comforting-empowering-study-finds/story-e6frg996-1226311497275

Wallop, H. (2011, March 13). Japan earthquake: How Twitter and Facebook helped. The Telegraph. Retrieved August 26, 2012 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8379101/Japan-earthquake-how-Twitter-and-Facebook-helped.html

References