"In times of emergency, finding reliable information online can be challenging. This guide offers practical advice to help you identify trustworthy information and avoid misinformation. By asking the right questions and using the tools provided, you can make informed decisions even during a crisis."
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(Introduction)
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"As a tool of political communication and information diffusion, social media has transformed the process of securitization, allowing (in)security messages to spread and scale up rapidly. Focusing on the case of the Amazon rainforest fires in 2019, this article seeks to answer two questions: How doe
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s securitization spread in online networks? And who are the actors that contribute to the diffusion of security messages? To explore this puzzle, the study develops a dictionary of query terms and performs a full-archive search to collect tweets posted between June and October 2019 and reconstruct the communication network of more than 3 million users. Drawing from theories of online activism and research on information diffusion in networks, the study uses both the structure of the Twitter network and the dynamics of activity in message exchange to identify four types of users and explore their roles in the spread of the message. The findings shed new light on the ways in which social media facilitates the definition of security problems and provide empirical evidence of the prominent position of influence taken by lay actors in the process of securitization." (Abstract)
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"This report explores the importance of a robust Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) in Nigeria and the need for effective communication to ameliorate the loss and damage caused by flooding. Following Nigeria’s Floods of 2022, which resulted in over 600 lives lost, 3000 injured, 300 thousand hectare
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s of farmlands wiped out and 200,000 houses damaged, and two million people displaced across 20 states in Nigeria, as reported by Premium Times, it is imperative that focus be given to strategies to adapt and prepare for future flood events which are expected to be worse in order to limit the damage caused. However, Nigeria has faced challenges in effectively communicating and preventing the impacts of floods due to poor FEWS communication. The article emphasizes that an early warning system is crucial for building resilience and reducing the impacts of climate-related disasters. By informing citizens about potential and imminent extreme events, governments and stakeholders can save lives, protect infrastructure, and support long-term sustainability. However, developing countries like Nigeria face difficulties in implementing and communicating FEWS due to technical limitations and insufficient infrastructure [...] To address these challenges, the article proposes framing FEWS communication as political communication in Nigeria. It suggests involving popular politicians as information bearers across states and local governments, who can act as climate champions and effectively disseminate early warning messages to the public. This approach leverages the popularity and influence of political figures to enhance FEWS communication and increase climate resilience among the population." (Forward, page 3)
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"In this paper, we identified seven most widely spread conspiracy discourses about earthquakes. These conspiracy discourses link earthquakes to military activities like secret nuclear bomb testing, God’s Providence like the punishment of humans for their sins, space activities like aliens visiting
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our planet, the US secret weather control program HAARP, tests of the Large Hadron Collider, fracking projects, and freemasonic plots. Following the major earthquake in Indonesia at the end of November 2022, we extracted data from Twitter by keywords using the Hoaxy tool for tracking the spread of information on Twitter. Applying the Bot Sentinel tool, we also got data on the sentiment of the users. The divine and military discourses dominated the conspiracy discussion, followed by the discussions about extraction and HAARP. Though there were more human-like accounts than bot-like accounts, we found a positive correlation between the frequency of tweets on the conspiracy discourses and the bot scores of the accounts, which suggests that bot-like accounts were tweeting more than human-like accounts. It was also found that normal accounts tweeted more than toxic accounts, and there was a positive relationship between the bot score and the toxicity level of an account. It suggests that bot-like accounts were involved more in disruptive activities than human-like accounts." (Abstract)
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"BBC Media Action has been using mass media to help audiences recognise risks and keep safe from explosive ordnance (EO), which is widespread across Afghanistan following years of conflict. We conducted a panel study in 10 most affected provinces to evaluate the impact of our programme. We found tha
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t increased exposure to our content, which reached 5.4 million Afghans, was linked to increased ability to identify explosive ordnance risks; improved knowledge of what to do to keep safe; and increased discussion with others." (Introduction)
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"Based on a 5-year study, involving over 150 in-depth interviews, this book examines the political, economic and social forces that sustain and influence humanitarian journalists. The authors argue that – by amplifying marginalised voices and providing critical, in-depth explanations of neglected
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crises – these journalists show us that another kind of humanitarian journalism is possible. However, the authors also reveal the heavy price these reporters pay for deviating from conventional journalistic norms. Their peripheral position at the ‘boundary zone’ between the journalistic and humanitarian fields means that a humanitarian journalist’s job is often precarious – with direct implications for their work, especially as ‘watchdogs’ for the aid sector. As a result, they urgently need more support if they are to continue to do this work and promote more effective and accountable humanitarian action." (Publisher description)
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"[...] in popular imagination and policy Indigenous peoples often appear to be caricatured and misrepresented, for instance through tropes of Indigenous peoples as custodians of the environment or especially vulnerable to environmental change. These framings matter because they can result in disaste
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r management policies and practices that do not capture Indigenous peoples' complex realities. However, these framings have not been analysed in the context of disasters. In this article, we aim to better understand these framings through a critical discourse analysis of how Indigenous peoples in disasters are represented in the expert news media. We identify five discourses, including a dominant one of disasters as natural phenomena to be addressed through humanitarianism and technocratic interventions. Such discourses render Indigenous peoples helpless, depoliticize disasters and are justified by framing governments and NGOs as caring for Indigenous peoples. However, we also identify competing discourses that focus on systems of oppression and self-determination in disaster management. These discourse recognise disasters as political and include discussion of the role of colonialism in disaster creation. As care emerged as a means through which intervention was justified, we conclude by asking questions of who is cared for/about in disasters and how that care is performed". (Abstract)
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"Our 2022 report shows that all of the most under-reported crises are now in Africa. Hunger is rampant and spreading, particularly in East Africa where one of the worst droughts in living memory is causing over 21 million people to face life-threatening hunger. Water becomes scarcer every day, crops
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are failing, livestock are dying. Women and girls are disproportionately affected, with 150 million more women than men going hungry in 2021 around the world. Yet media attention on countries such as Malawi, Zambia and Chad fall into the shadows of the news headlines. This year, there have been more than fifty times the number of media articles written about the new iPhone 14 (95,118) than the millions of people in need of life-saving humanitarian aid right now due to extreme drought in Angola (1,847) – the crisis which received the least media attention in 2022." (Introduction, page 3)
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"Despite the strides made towards strengthening two-way communication and dialogue in the regional response to the Sudan crisis, there remain critical gaps inhibiting the effectiveness of collective efforts. The Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and the Regional Refugee Response Plan should allocate
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time, priority and resources to communication and engagement approaches which ensure investment in key communication, community engagement and accountability (CCEA) activities. This should include integrated CCEA activities in sectoral interventions and those led by local and diaspora humanitarian action. The information and engagement ecosystem is in constant flux in Sudan and neighbouring countries and maintaining a solid communications base requires a range of skills and analysis. As a priority for protection, forward planning must consider the skills needed." Key takeaways)
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"Videos are commonly used by emergency services agencies in natural hazard emergencies to communicate to the public about the hazard, its possible risks, and to promote protective action. To evaluate the efficacy of the videos being disseminated and amplified during an event, this research examined
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the extent to which different types of videos trigger risk perceptions, promote protective action, and improve knowledge about the hazard and impact. The findings suggest a video containing a smaller number of facts is most useful at impacting the public’s hazard knowledge, visualisations (real-life or infographics) of facts helps improve knowledge, and videos highlighting the impact an emergency is having (or had) through people’s experiences helped improve hazard knowledge, risk perceptions, and protective action intentions. Finally, while footage of a bushfire triggers threat perceptions and some coping appraisal, the style is not as useful for building hazard knowledge. The research extends visual risk literacy knowledge and offers practical guidance for agencies operating in high-risk environments seeking to achieve behavioural compliance. The research argues videos will continue to be an important tool in the public information and warning milieu for any risk event." (Abstract)
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"Measuring disaster resilience from the perspective of long-term recovery ability is important for the planning and construction of urban sustainability, whereas short-term resilient recovery can better reflect a city’s ability to recover quickly after a disaster occurs. This study proposes an ana
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lytical framework for urban disaster recovery and resilience based on social media data that can analyze short-term disaster recovery and assess disaster resilience from the perspectives of infrastructure and people’s psychological states. We consider the downpour in Henan, China, in July 2021. The results show that (1) social media data can effectively reflect short-term disaster recovery, (2) disaster resilience can be assessed using social media data combined with rainfall and damage data, and (3) the framework can quantitatively reflect the differences in disaster recovery and resilience across regions. The findings can facilitate better decision-making in disaster emergency management for precise and effective post-disaster reconstruction and psychological intervention, and provide references for cities to improve disaster resilience." (Abstract)
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