Choose a recent crisis, and identify how reporters used hashtags (#) to follow, report, or locate a source for a story. How has the use of blogs, social networking sites, and other types of "new" media impacted the reporting of a crisis? Based on your research, what advice would you give to an organization that is developing and implementing a crisis media plan specifically for social media?

Cheers

The humanitarian crisis is the most common and contemporary that was articled in March 2017 and hashtags were created to follow, report, and locate the source of the story.

The use of blogs, social networking sites, and other types of digital media have impacted the reporting of a crisis quite positively.

There are four essential steps that an organization can use to develop and implement a crisis media plan successfully. These include:

1. Preparation

2. Listening

3. Participation

4. Engaging

Step-by-step explanation

The humanitarian crisis is the most common and contemporary that was articled in March 2017. The post defined it as a case of scarcity and the United Nations reported it as the most astronomical crisis historically. The press used hashtags to tweet, alert, and plead for help from people globally. The hashtags were also used to show the plight of affected regions. These hashtags provided reliable links for the extension of the information about the humanitarian crisis. These particular links were connected with websites owned by the United Nations that had formally conducted studies and came up with a conclusion about the situation. For example, #southsudan is a hashtag that was used. It is important to note that South Sudan was entirely overwhelmed by the humanitarian crisis.

Since every nation in the world is transforming digitally, social media is a fast and cheap strategy that can be used to spread pertinent information. However, it is important to note several essential factors while using social media. These include:

1. Preparation.

Firstly, it is vital to prepare the manner to respond to the respondent and to ascertain who will supervise the process.

2. Listening.

It is crucial to listen to the comments of social media users about your organization.

3. Participation.

After listening to social media users, it is essential to join the discussion with complete information.

4. Engaging.

Last but not least, it is important to actively and consistently engage your fans in social networks.

There are also some negative effects which include:

1. If unfavorable or fake news is spread about a certain crisis, the media can increase it unknowingly.

2. False information about a crisis can make stakeholders hesitant to use true & evident information.

3. Medium of contribution may be undependable thus making anyone willing to assist unable to do so.

Some of the positive effects of using hashtags, blogs, RSS, and social networking sites include:

1. Helping crisis responders, communicators, and other stakeholders by providing them with useful and dependable details about the crisis.

2. Providing enough details about the affected location and affected population to individuals or groups who are willing to help.