Literature Review
Over ninety-thousand residents of Fort McMurray had to flee their homes on short notice on 3rd May 2016, due to a wildfire that had burned out of control and was threatening the city. The aftermath of the catastrophe led to billions of dollars cost in damages sustained by government and private entities in the area. Syncrude Canada was one such company that had also sustained massive damage to properties. Syncrude Canada is one of the leading oil sands producers in the area and on the morning, it had sent out a tweet informing the personnel and its followers in the area to clear out of their homes and the company premises due to the burning out of the wildfire. The company also sent out text messages to the employees later in the same evening informing them about the same. The tweet received thousands of retweets and was shared by its followers’ number of times. This can be one of the reasons why the reports of Syncrude personnel injuries were vastly limited (Resnick-Ault & Hampton, 2020).
According to Boulianne, Minaker & Haney (2018), the use of social media to inform people about disasters can be an efficient way to prevent panic and anti-social behaviour among the public. Sometimes media coverage can make a spectacle out of the disasters and focus heavily on the negative aspect of the public response such as rioting, violence and looting among others. Boulianne, Minaker & Haney and focused their literature on how the unique characteristics of social media operating in a different background such as national catastrophe are worthwhile compared to traditional media. Social media is also an effective means of communication in cases of catastrophes because the news comes directly from the victims themselves thus making people understand the gravity of the situation. The news from social media also travels at a much faster rate compared to traditional media and therefore Syncrude officials decided to inform their personnel about the leading catastrophe through one of the social media platforms, Twitter. This strategy of communication by Syncrude led to it saving the lives of hundreds of workers that were about to go to work within company premises in the morning could have gotten stuck there due to the nearing of the enraged wildfire. Although, the step which was undertaken by Syncrude was unconventional and unplanned since social media was until then could not be considered as a medium to inform employees about the nearing catastrophe.
According to Reuter & Kaufhold (2018), it has been fifteen years since the inception of social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube among others. Although, there are more shortcomings to the technology than its usefulness social media time and time again has proven that it can be useful in hopeless situations and has thus stood the test of time. Social media platforms were created to be an effective communication tool for individuals to communicate freely. But at one point this free communication became dangerous with the spread of fake news and unfiltered information being circulated. People realized this and even the social media companies realize this, so news coming from social media platforms suddenly became unreliable. However, there was no dearth in the usages of the platforms and users have since then increased in platforms such as Twitter and YouTube amid Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandals. There is however lack of studies that can indicate that companies can rely on these platforms to inform and make people aware of the actual and real information regarding their lives and their areas. Syncrude tweeting about the disaster which led hundreds of Alberta residents to become aware of the fact can be considered as a stroke of luck. This form of communication strategy has since then not been repeated by any other company anywhere in Canada or any other place for that matter. But taking the effectiveness of the move into account, more studies are required in this area to determine if information through social media platforms can be a reliable communication strategy for companies during an event such as a natural disaster.
References
Reuter, C., & Kaufhold, M. A. (2018). Fifteen years of social media in emergencies: a retrospective review and future directions for crisis informatics. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 26(1), 41-57.
Boulianne, S., Minaker, J., & Haney, T. J. (2018). Does compassion go viral? Social media, caring, and the Fort McMurray wildfire. Information, Communication & Society, 21(5), 697-711.
Resnick-Ault, J. & Hampton, L. (2020). Oil sands fared well through the Canada fire, but restart a challenge. Retrieved 20 November 2020, from https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-wildfire-restart-idAFL2N1850J7