The role that new media and communications technologies have played in the recent ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings, as well as in recent disaster responses, has sparked a large amount of academic and professional interest in their potential, how they can be harnessed effectively, but also their limitations. As a result, there has been a surge in the production of high quality literature related to social networking, social media and emergency situations.
The Communication and Complex Emergencies Project is a collaboration between the University of Adelaide’s Applied Communication Collaborative Research Unit (ACCRU) and the Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC). Its main bjectives are to highlight the role of communication, including new and social media, in complex emergencies and in support of humanitarian assistance. The work focuses on ‘what we know’ and in doing so maps out a broad array of knowledge while focusing on the functions, strengths and limitations associated with various forms of media, from social networking and social media to radio, television, print and video.
The work has a number of outputs that are designed to support each other, including:
- Social networking and media annotated bibliography
- Social networking and media issues paper
- Communication and complex emergencies handbook.
