Social Media, Public Participation, and the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Starbird, Kate; Dailey, Donald J; Walker, Ann Hayward; Leschine, Thomas M.; Pavia, Robert; Bostrom, Ann

doi:10.1080/10807039.2014.947866

Cited by 55 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The public in particular engaged though both traditional and social media, arguably more so than in prior spills (Starbird et al 2015). The DWH response organization undertook a wide variety of activities to manage risks and communicate their practices to both the general public and to those most directly affected, such as commercial fishers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication Practices for Oil Spills: Stakeholder Engagement During Preparedness and Response

Walker¹,

Pavia

Bostrom

et al. 2014

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal

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The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill was a pivotal moment in the expression of and reporting on stakeholder risk perceptions about oil spills, response options, and safety. Public engagement through both traditional and social media was arguably much higher than in prior spills. The DWH response organization undertook a wide variety of activities to manage risks and communicate with both the general public and those directly affected, such as commercial fishers. However, these did not fully address widespread concerns about ecological and human health risks associated with dispersant use. Consequentially the DWH spill heightened awareness of persistent risk communication problems around oil spill response, and especially dispersant use. Oil spill risk research and experience suggests that institutional and operational factors inhibit engaging communities and stakeholders during oil spill preparedness and response, and that such engagement is essential for effective risk management. In this article we review and assess current oil spill preparedness and response practices for community and stakeholder engagement, including related institutional and operational constraints. This assessment suggests five example risk management practices to improve and advance risk communications during oil spill preparedness and response activities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication Practices for Oil Spills: Stakeholder Engagement During Preparedness and Response

Walker¹,

Pavia

Bostrom

et al. 2014

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The situation space that responders face is a subset of the situation space plus the uncertainty, begging the question of how the public, informed in some cases by first-hand observation and in many others by the combination of traditional and social media, sees the same situation (Starbird et al 2015). The situation space the public perceives may bear little resemblance to the space that responders see, at best only partially overlapping the plausible space ( Figure 3).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Also standing apart, although more limited in scope, is a "hindcasting scenario exercise" developed and field tested shortly after EVOS by Harrald and Mazzuchi (1993). The latter suggested a number of institutional inadequacies endemic to spill response planning as it then was, including several in the areas of public information and communications that are another focus of this project (Bostrom et al 2015a,b;Starbird et al 2015;Hayward et al 2015). As with the 1967 Royal Dutch Shell SA noted above, the insights obtained seem due at least in part to the systematic What-If Scenario Modeling to Support Oil Spill Decision-Making rigor, breadth, and comprehensiveness with which this scenario-driven exercise was framed.…”

Section: Scenarios In Oil Spill Preparedness and Responsementioning

confidence: 97%

What-If Scenario Modeling to Support Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Decision-Making

Leschine

Pavia

Walker³

et al. 2014

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal

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Scenario analysis (SA) is the process of developing plausible futures around the forces affecting an organization in the face of uncertainties over which it has little control. SA is widely used in the private sector and increasingly a tool of environmental planners grappling with problems of great complexity and uncertainty. SA ideally marries expert judgment with the broader perspectives engaged stakeholders bring. While the 1990 Oil Pollution Act (OPA) brought substantive improvement to oil spill contingency planning, many issues remain. Reguatorily prescribed definitions of 'worst case' lead to SA practice that seldom achieves the full promise of the SA approach. Contingency planning overly focused on tactical and operational considerations can leave response managers little prepared to deal with public concerns that emerge in the event of a major spill, concerns increasingly magnified through social media. Politics continues to contribute to poorly conceived contingency planning in which adopted scenarios bear little resemblance to events that subsequently transpire. Risk attenuation and risk amplification both inhibit scenario-based planning around oil spills, evinced by the Deepwater Horizon spill. Improvements in pre-planning in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill nevertheless provide a foundation for more effective use of SA.

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“…Droughts can last a relatively long time, and this provides a opportunity to use social media in drought risk mitigation and recovery. Starbird et al (2015) highlighted concerns about how slowmoving, long-term, environmental disasters (e.g. BP oil spill) were more likely to be communicated in tweets about dispersant use than in the larger conversation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…6.2.6.3 Opportunities Social media provides an ideal platform for drought decisionmaking teams to gather crowdsourcing information, conduct policy analyses, and come up with feasible solutions (St. Dennis et al 2013;Starbird et al 2015). The emerging grassroots data create a marvelous opportunity for people to acquaint themselves with research skills and experiences vital to solving future problems.…”

Section: Decision Makingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Examining the role of social media in California’s drought risk management in 2014

et al. 2015

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Social media creates an interactive information communication platform for disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Recent research has analyzed the participation of social media in natural disasters, such as the Haiti Earthquake in 2010, Queensland floods from 2010 to 2011, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and Colorado flood in 2013, but little research has paid attention to drought risk management. In this study, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis method is used to evaluate the social media sites of governmental agencies that were directly involved in California's Drought Task Force in the historic drought in 2014. The results show that state governmental agencies have used the popular social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter) as communication channels with professional stakeholders and the general public. The major functions of social media in the California drought risk management process included one-way information sharing, two-way information sharing, situational awareness, rumor control, reconnection, and decision making. However, social media was not active in donation solicitation and volunteer management. The two-way communication still stayed in relatively surficial levels with limited comments and inadequate conversations. A gap existed to reconnect public social media domain and personal social networks, even though drought risk was closely related to everyone's daily life. During the California drought in 2014, Facebook worked actively in two-way information sharing for drought risk information and water conservation strategies; YouTube was a robust platform that attracted large number of views on drought videos; and Twitter played an effective role in reconnection of social networks to expedite drought risk information dissemination.

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Social Media, Public Participation, and the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Cited by 55 publications

References 9 publications

Communication Practices for Oil Spills: Stakeholder Engagement During Preparedness and Response

Communication Practices for Oil Spills: Stakeholder Engagement During Preparedness and Response

What-If Scenario Modeling to Support Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Decision-Making

Examining the role of social media in California’s drought risk management in 2014

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