Citation

Sjöberg E, Barker GC, Landgren J, Griberg I, Skiby JE, Tubbin A, von Stapelmohr A, Härenstam M, Jansson M, Knutsson R. Biosecur. Bioterror. 2013; 11(Suppl 1): S264-S275.

Affiliation

Elisabeth Sjöberg is Communications Officer, Department of Security, National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden. Gary C. Barker, PhD, is Principal Scientist, Institute of Food Research, Gut Health and Food Safety, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, United Kingdom. Jonas Landgren, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Head of Division Interaction Design, Chalmers University of Technology and Gothenburg University, Sweden. Isaac Griberg is Social Media Officer, International Committee of the Red Cross Institute, Geneva, Switzerland. Jeffrey E. Skiby is Senior Communications Officer, Division of Food Microbiology, Technical University of Denmark, Søborg, Denmark. Anna Tubbin is Communications Officer, Swedish Board of Agriculture, Jönköping Sweden. Anne von Stapelmohr is Coordinator of Crisis Communication, Swedish Contingency Agency, Stockholm, Sweden. Malin Härenstam is Head of Communication, National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden. Mikael Jansson is Communications Officer, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. Rickard Knutsson, PhD, is Director of Security Department, National Veterinary Institute , Uppsala, Sweden .

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/bsp.2013.0014

PMID

23971817

Abstract

This article focuses on social media and interactive challenges for emergency organizations during a bioterrorism or agroterrorism incident, and it outlines the dual-use dilemma of social media. Attackers or terrorists can use social media as their modus operandi, and defenders, including emergency organizations in law enforcement and public and animal health, can use it for peaceful purposes. To get a better understanding of the uses of social media in these situations, a workshop was arranged in Stockholm, Sweden, to raise awareness about social media and animal bioterrorism threats. Fifty-six experts and crisis communicators from international and national organizations participated. As a result of the workshop, it was concluded that emergency organizations can collect valuable information and monitor social media before, during, and after an outbreak. In order to make use of interactive communication to obtain collective intelligence from the public, emergency organizations must adapt to social networking technologies, requiring multidisciplinary knowledge in the fields of information, communication, IT, and biopreparedness. Social network messaging during a disease outbreak can be visualized in stream graphs and networks showing clusters of Twitter and Facebook users. The visualization of social media can be an important preparedness tool in the response to bioterrorism and agroterrorism.

Language: en