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represents a major step toward protecting the public from the threat of pandemic
flu.”
Communicating during a Pandemic
As with any emergency situation, effective, transparent, and complete communica-
tion is of utmost importance. This section describes the emerging tools and tech-
niques relevant for pandemic events.
Social networking tools are emerging as a powerful means of communication
in a broad set of scenarios. Not only are they used routinely for interpersonal or
social interactions, but also they are becoming dominant for these purposes in
many arenas. In fact, “... social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular
online activity ... [and are] ahead of personal email. Member communities are vis-
ited by 67 percent of the global online population, [and the] time spent is growing
at three times the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10 percent of all
internet time.” 38 Beyond the personal applications, business social networks also are
growing. One of the fast-growing business networks, LinkedIn, is enjoying a surge
of activity; “LinkedIn membership is up to 85 million [as of December 2010] ...
every second that ticks by, LinkedIn gets a new user.” 39
It is in this context of broad community participation that these networks are
becoming effective tools for emergency communication. This is certainly true as
it applies to pandemics. As examples, many such tools have set up specific sec-
tions for pandemic discussion and communication, including LinkedIn, Facebook,
and Twitter. These sites are in addition to the numerous, more traditional web-
sites devoted to these topics; excellent government sites also exist (e.g., http://www
.pandemiclu.gov/; http://www.cdc.gov/flu/Pandemic/), as do many outstanding
private or civic sites (e.g., h1n1alliance.org/; cidrap.umn.edu/). Add to these a
wealth of other communication venues, such as PSAs, special public audio/video
conferences and symposia, * and the paths to communicate the pandemic message
(in the preparedness phase and in the response and recovery phases) are many and
diverse (Figure 17.6).
One particular concern regarding pandemic communications is the notion of
alarming the public unnecessarily. Certainly, public awareness is important, but
avoiding information fatigue (or even being perceived as “crying 'swine'” as one
report quoted 40 ) is equally key. Communication must be continually measured in
terms of its intent, its process, and its effectiveness.
* A powerful example of this media communication is the Public Broadcast System (PBS) video,
Predicting Pandemics—How Do We Fight Both the Swine Flu Pandemic and Our Fear of It? , of
May 8, 2009.
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