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Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat, Oh My! The Challenges and Successes of Using Social Media to Communicate Science to the Public [Poster]

Date: 4/25/2019

Time: 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM

Room: Fifth Avenue

Social media is becoming a more important component of communicating science and local hazard information to the public. With the rise of this new media and the internet of things, scientists now have a more direct connection to communicate not only science information but also near real-time information about seismic hazards (e.g. tsunami alerts, earthquake information). However, this new communication avenue is a double-edged sword, as the same social media can be used to spread misinformation or create unrealistic expectations from the public regarding how and when local hazard information is disseminated. Here we invite presentations that relate to the use of social media as an education and outreach tool or as a method to disseminate hazard information including but not limited to: case studies of using social media to disseminate emergency information, applications of social media as an education and outreach tool, challenges and successes in using social media to communicate with the public and new methods or techniques that aim to improve interactions on social media.

Conveners

Elizabeth A. Vanacore, University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Seismic Network (elizabeth.vanacore@upr.edu)
Sara K. McBride, U.S. Geological Survey (skmcbride@usgs.gov)

Poster Presentations