Social Media and the Alaska Earthquake Center's Response to the November 30, 2018 7.0 Mw Anchorage Earthquake

Date: 4/25/2019

Time: 11:45 AM

Room: Vashon

The 7.0 mww Anchorage earthquake on Nov. 30 caused considerable damage and initiated an aftershock sequence that has kept public demand high for science and hazard information ever since. Although the Alaska Earthquake Center (AEC) has used social media since 2013, the Nov. 30 event was the first federally declared earthquake disaster in Alaska to require a social media response. The success of AEC's effort was demonstrated by rapid audience growth, praise from officials, and a Twitter-to-television pipeline where social media posts often led directly to broader media stories highlighting the center's talking points. However, those successes have created public expectations for rapid, 24/7 social media response while increasing the need to monitor accounts for rumors and pseudoscience. We have also been surprised by the extent to which AEC's accounts have become forums, in positive and negative ways, for people experiencing mental health impacts from the earthquake and its aftershocks. In this case study of AEC's social media response to the Nov. 30 earthquake, we will examine how the center's communications philosophy and Incident Command System-based procedures defined that response, what the observable outcomes were, and where unexpected challenges have cropped up throughout the sequence.

Presenting Author: Ian J. Dickson

Authors