Emergency services׳ attitudes towards social media: A quantitative and qualitative survey across Europe

Various studies show that social media is used in emergencies - and that in spite of possible challenges for emergency services, beneficial use cases can be identified. However, relatively little empirical data is available regarding the attitudes of emergency services towards social media, and almost none of a comparative nature. This article summarizes the findings of a survey conducted of the EU project 'EmerGent' with 761 emergency service staff across 32 European countries from September to December 2014. The main aims of the survey were to explore the attitudes expressed by emergency service staff towards social media for private and organizational use as well as the levels and main factors influencing the current and likely future use of social media in their organizations. Based on our results, we discuss possible enhancements of the emergency management cycle using social media.