SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE KERALA FLOODS

Abstract

A disaster can be any occurrence that can cause damage, ecological disruption, loss of human life, deterioration of health and health services on a scale, sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response from outside the affected community area (WHO). A disaster can be defined as an occurrence either natural or manmade that causes human suffering and creates human needs that victims cannot alleviate without assistance (American Red Cross ARC). Disaster has been classified into natural disasters such as flood, earthquake, cyclones, tsunami, drought, landslides, pest attacks, forest fires, avalanches, etc., and man-made and human induced such as technological, industrial accidents, etc. Recently Kerala has been susceptive to natural disasters due to the diverse changes in its ecology. Kerala witnessed consecutive floods in the year 2018 and 2019. During both these calamities social media played an important role in advocating the means of rescue and relief by effective resource management and consolidation of relief efforts; the victims of the flood utilised social media to seek help whereas the government and unaffected citizens utilised social media to mobilise rescue, camps and collection centre for people to donate to the affected. This study will look into the use of social media in disaster management with special reference to the Kerala floods. The different forms of involvement of social media in the event of this disaster, in terms of disaster preparation and response, will be analysed from the perspective of the government and the citizens. The focus of this paper is on the role of social media in the Kerala floods and how it served as a tool in disaster management.