Author(s)

MAMADOU OURY DIALLO, SHOGO AOKI, TOMOMI AOYAMA, KENJI WATANABE

Abstract

Risk communication is a crucial component in the management of human-made and natural disasters. While traditional means of communications, such as television, radio and telephones etc. are widely used by governments and emergency response agencies for the purpose of disseminating risk information to at-risk populations, every time disasters strike, their reliability, efficiency and effectiveness are called into question. As a result, over the recent series of disasters that struck the world, modern communication mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others have emerged as important means for communicating with at-risks populations. However, though it is known that these mediums serve a variety of communication purposes, little research has examined the effectiveness of these modern communication channels during extreme conditions. This study is aimed at investigating the literature from the government perspective in order to evaluate the effectiveness of modern communication mediums for reaching at-risk populations in emergency situations. The review of the literature reveals that modern communication channels provide many opportunities to both response organizations and the affected communities. In addition, the effectiveness of modern communication mediums during emergencies is hampered by a number of factors, such as privacy and security, socio-economic conditions of users, operational issues, accuracy, and authentication problems that need to be addressed for these channels to deliver all their potential. Finally, the study concluded that regardless of the typology and intensity of the disaster, modern communication channels can be considerably effective if some measures are taken. Therefore, in light of that, the study made some recommendations for government.

Keywords

risk communication, communication channels, emergency situations, evaluation, modern communication platforms, disasters management, risk management