Twitter as a Tool in Crisis Communication in the European Union Area

Abstract

n this study we built understanding on how the social media and especially Twitter can be used in crisis communication in the EU. We conducted a case analysis about how the Munich Police Department did their crisis communication via Twitter during the Munich shooting crisis. The use of social media in crisis communication is increasing as well as the available mobile phone environment for the people in the EU area. EU projects have increased knowledge about the possible crises situations in the EU by analyzing the crises events which happened in the EU. Moving people are more often connected to social media and the services in that environment give new possibilities to the authorities. EU projects are delivering directions to the EU authorities for social media. The EU authorities have a lack of common guidelines for the social media environment which could unify their actions. The analyzed Twitter case concluded in the understanding that Twitter can be used as one tool in crisis communication. It is impossible to manage all the portals on Twitter during a crisis – the effective way to tackle threats in crisis communication with that tool is to concentrate mainly on own portal and on common ones. The Twitter service could be developed for crisis communication by adding a couple of information windows for authorities to the main window.