Table 2: Police Communicators’... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2:

Police Communicators’ Perspectives on Social Media Use in Terror Crises.

	Use on 22 July and Lessons Learned in the Aftermath	Improvements and Current Routines	Challenges and Further Improvements Needed
Police Directorate	Social media not used Awakening to social media’s significance in crisis comm. Social media may contribute to saving lives	Social media used in public comm., in monitoring people’s concerns, and to resolve crises Increased interplay with news media and police intelligence	Twitter to direct users to websites with verified information. Social media use needs guidelines and structure More engagement on Police’s Facebook pages A challenge to exploit social media’s dialogical potential in terror crisis Police must be careful with humour and irony in everyday tweets
Oslo Police District Operations leader	Social media not used Twitter could have spread evacuation messages swiftly Twitter had not changed planning and action Twitter had not increased awareness of Utøya details Would be a challenge to communicate with victims on Twitter	Established routines for updating in social media to improve crisis management Now prepare and inform users on two Twitter accounts about precautionary steps Use news media to direct users to twitter information	Avoid Twitter in two-way communication due to lack of user verification Filtering tools may reduce information overflow Lack of situational overview over crisis complicates victim dialogues Avoid overflow of citizen response Respect that one agency has chief responsibility Be aware of fake accounts
Oslo Police District Advisers responsible for crisis comm	Social media not used	Daily monitoring and messaging to prepare for and manage crisis concerns Create liaisons, units operating closely together	Avoid becoming too reliant on Twitter, can be hacked Establish routines for correcting imprecise messages that may be posted during crises

	Use on 22 July and Lessons Learned in the Aftermath	Improvements and Current Routines	Challenges and Further Improvements Needed
Police Directorate	Social media not used Awakening to social media’s significance in crisis comm. Social media may contribute to saving lives	Social media used in public comm., in monitoring people’s concerns, and to resolve crises Increased interplay with news media and police intelligence	Twitter to direct users to websites with verified information. Social media use needs guidelines and structure More engagement on Police’s Facebook pages A challenge to exploit social media’s dialogical potential in terror crisis Police must be careful with humour and irony in everyday tweets
Oslo Police District Operations leader	Social media not used Twitter could have spread evacuation messages swiftly Twitter had not changed planning and action Twitter had not increased awareness of Utøya details Would be a challenge to communicate with victims on Twitter	Established routines for updating in social media to improve crisis management Now prepare and inform users on two Twitter accounts about precautionary steps Use news media to direct users to twitter information	Avoid Twitter in two-way communication due to lack of user verification Filtering tools may reduce information overflow Lack of situational overview over crisis complicates victim dialogues Avoid overflow of citizen response Respect that one agency has chief responsibility Be aware of fake accounts
Oslo Police District Advisers responsible for crisis comm	Social media not used	Daily monitoring and messaging to prepare for and manage crisis concerns Create liaisons, units operating closely together	Avoid becoming too reliant on Twitter, can be hacked Establish routines for correcting imprecise messages that may be posted during crises