Towards social resilience: A quantitative and qualitative survey on citizens' perception of social media in emergencies in Europe

- We did a survey with 1034 citizens staff cross 30 European countries.
- Social media is more used to search (43%) than to share information (27%).
- Emergency services are expected to monitor social media (69%).
- Mistrust as the main barrier to using social media in emergencies
- Very little awareness of social media safety services and emergency apps

Social media is increasingly being used during emergencies. Most available studies are focused on how citizens and/or authorities use these technologies in concrete events. However, larger quantitative studies with significant results on attitudes, needs and future plans of citizens in such events are not available - especially such of a comparative nature related to emergency services. As part of the EU project 'EmerGent' this article presents the findings of a survey of 1034 citizens across 30 European countries conducted between February and June 2015 to explore citizens' attitudes towards the use of social media for private purposes and in emergency situations. The article briefly compares these findings with a second survey conducted with 761 emergency service staff across 32 European countries from September to December 2014. The aim of the overall study is to discuss citizens' attitudes towards social media in emergencies in order to derive challenges and opportunities for social resilience.