Resumen de The role of social media in local government crisis communications

Melissa W. Graham, Elizabeth J. Avery, Sejin Park

• Using survey data collected from more than 300 local government officials from municipalities across the United States, this study examines social media use in a relatively unexplored context, local governments. It specifically addresses the adoption and use of social media tools for crisis communication and social media's part in managing a crisis. Results indicate the extent of social media use, but not the number of tools used, is positively associated with local city officials’ assessments of their ability to control a crisis situation as well as their overall evaluations of the strength of their responses. Implications and importance of findings are discussed