Authors
Joe Cullen, Thomas Spielhofer, Kerstin Junge, David Drabble, Thomas Ludwig, Christian Reuter
Abstract
This Deliverable focuses on providing a concept for measuring the impact of social media in emergencies both on citizens and on Emergency Management Services (EMS) as part of the EmerGent project – as such it focuses both on measuring the impact of social media in general and, more specifically, on the impacts of the EmerGent outputs. It firstly provides in section 2 an over-arching methodological framework for conducting the research required to fulfil the objectives of WP 2: Impact of Social Media in Emergencies. Section 3 of the Deliverable provides an overview of impact assessment methodologies in the social sciences – starting from a general point of view and focussing in on methods used to study issues of direct relevance to this project: the use of social media in emergencies. The next section (section 4) explores some of the key EmerGent concepts of relevance to the impact measurement. Section 5 presents the proposed concept for the EmerGent impact assessment, using an overarching theory of change methodology.
Purpose of the Document
This Deliverable contributes to Objective O1 of EmerGent – Analyse the impact of social media for citizens and for EMS in the whole Emergency Management Cycle (EMC) today and tomorrow. The specific objective of this Deliverable is to prepare the ground for Tasks 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5, by setting out an overarching concept as well as more specific methods for measuring impact in relation to social interventions such as EmerGent.
