Crisis management japan earthquake - Assignment Example

Crisis Management- Japan Earthquake al affiliation Crisis Management- Japan Earthquake It is unfortunate that Japan has experienced several disasters as a result of earthquakes and Tsunamis. Having had such a history, it would be expected that Japan would have had ways to manage recurrent earthquakes. In fact, Japan has for a long time been known for disaster management skills (Christopher 2014). In 2013, Japan was hit by yet another earthquake. This earthquake is said to have triggered small tsunamis. The magnitude of this earthquake was 7.3 and struck the same area that the 2011 earthquake had struck.
This earthquake devastated the Fukushima Dai- Ichi power plant, Tokyo Electric Power co. The effect of this earthquake was felt in Tokyo that is 300 miles away from the place of the crisis. There were no damages reported after this crisis. The major reason for this is because it was far off the coast. In this section, we are going to focus on the social media. In this era of technology, the social media can be used to manage a crisis or even to make the crisis worse than it already is.
Whenever one is dealing with a crisis, there is need to come up with a disaster management team that will look into the possible ways to quell the effects of the crisis. In the 2013 Japan Earthquake among the modes used to reach out to the people was through the social media. Firstly, in the 2013 Japan earthquake, the social media was used to inform the world about the crisis. The social media was used as one of the communication channels used to deal with the crisis. There are people who could not watch the news but with their mobile gadgets, they followed up the whole incidence from wherever they were.
The social media was also used to warn people against staying in the areas that had been affected by the crisis. This information was important as a precautionary measure incase another disaster was triggered by the earthquake. The survivors of the disaster also used the social media to tell their experiences during the crisis.
The social media was also used to pass messages of encouragement to the victims of the crisis. Through the social media, those people who had to relocate to higher grounds got the assistance from the donations that the social media users raised.
As stated above, the social media can be for the good of a crisis as well as an avenue for more disaster. Through face book sharing and re-tweeting options, people who would have been helped were not helped. It came to the attention of the authorities that it was not possible to locate the source of the information. In future it is important that the message does not get lost in the sharing and re-tweeting options. Another thing that was noted was that there are people who used the social media to take advantage of the crisis. This greatly affected the way the crisis was managed as people tended to lose interest as accountability was lacking on some people.
During the times of a crisis, it is better to have more avenues for communication. The value of the social media cannot be underestimated. Japan has the third largest number of social media users after the United States of America and Brazil. This made it easier for the information about the crisis to go round the world.
References
Bacon, P., & Hobson, C. (2014). Human Security and Japans Triple Disaster Responding to the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear crisis. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Sugu, K., & YAMAGUCHI, M. (2013, October 25). Japan Hit By 7.3-Magnitude Earthquake Off Fukushima Prefecture Coast, Tsunami Advisory Issued. Retrieved November 19, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/japan-earthquake-fukushima- prefecture_n_4164181.htm Read More