- Title
- Community empowerment and trust: Social media use during the Hazelwood mine fire
- Creator
- Susan, Yell; Michelle, Duffy
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/184532
- Identifier
- vital:16523
- Identifier
- ISBN:1324-1540
- Abstract
- During and after a disaster, affected communities grapple with how to respond and make sense of the experience. The physical and mental health of individuals is often adversely affected, as is the well being of the community. In early 2014, a fire in the Morwell open cut coalmine adjacent to the Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria burned for approximately 45 days, shrouding surrounding communities in smoke. As authorities struggled to put out the fire, the nearby communities became increasingly concerned about the perceived health risks of exposure to the smoke, particulate matter and gas emissions from the burning coal. The Hazelwood mine fire, initially treated as a fire emergency, 'evolved into a chronic technological disaster and a significant and lengthy environmental and health crisis' (Government of Victoria 2014, p. 28). In response to the crisis, people turned to social media as an alternative space in which to share information, tell their stories and organise for the purpose of activism. This paper takes the Hazelwood mine fire as a case study to examine how a community used social media (specifically Facebook) during a complex technological crisis involving health effects. It examines the issues facing emergency organisations and communities in relation to information and trust, and identifies the strengths and pitfalls of social media use in relation to community empowerment and engagement.
- Publisher
- Emergency Management Australia
- Relation
- Australian journal of emergency management Vol. 33, no. 2 (2018), p. 66-70
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright Emergency Management Australia
- Subject
- Climatic factors; Community development; Emergency management; Floods; Natural disasters; Planning; Prevention; Social aspects; Social media; Wildfires; 3507 Strategy, management and organization
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