{"id":270244,"date":"2021-06-09T16:50:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T13:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/covid-19-messages-make-emergency-alerts-just-another-text-in-the-crowd-on-your-home-screen\/"},"modified":"2021-06-09T16:50:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T13:50:02","slug":"covid-19-messages-make-emergency-alerts-just-another-text-in-the-crowd-on-your-home-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/covid-19-messages-make-emergency-alerts-just-another-text-in-the-crowd-on-your-home-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"#COVID-19 messages make emergency alerts just another text in the crowd on your home screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#COVID-19 messages make emergency alerts just another text in the crowd on your home screen<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n The April 2021 WEA message about COVID-19 vaccines sent in Virginia. Credit: Elizabeth Ellcessor
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On a spring day in 2020, residents of El Paso, Texas, saw their phones light up with a text message: “Avoid parks\/family gatherings this Easter. Stay home, stay safe. Do it for your loved ones.”<\/p>\n

This message, sent via the federal Wireless Emergency Alert system<\/a>, was one of many designed to deliver COVID-19-related guidance<\/a> directly to people’s cellphones. <\/p>\n

COVID-19-related messages are a new use of this alert system. They indicate changing ideas about what constitutes an emergency and underscore the challenges of public messaging in a personalized media<\/a> environment.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, emergency alerts are sent to phones in a given area only in very serious circumstances: Amber Alerts<\/a> for abducted children, presidential alerts<\/a> for national emergencies, alerts about imminent threats to life or safety and alerts “conveying recommendations for saving lives and property<\/a>.” Between 2012 and 2018, 96% of alerts were weather-related<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As I explain in my forthcoming book, “In Case of Emergency: How Technologies Mediate Crisis and Normalize Inequality,” use of a technology<\/a> designated for emergencies effectively declares an emergency, and when people believe they are in the midst of an emergency they often change their feelings and behavior. For instance, an alert that declared a “ballistic missile threat inbound” to Hawaii in January 2018 prompted some people to panic<\/a>. While this incident was quickly revealed to be a mistake<\/a>\u2014a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee confused a drill for an actual emergency<\/a>\u2014many people experienced an emergency: the fear, the confusion, the rush of activity.
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Just another alert?<\/b><\/p>\n

As Wireless Emergency Alert messages are being used for new kinds of emergencies, it’s more important than ever that public alert messaging is complete and straightforward. Yet there have been persistent challenges in COVID-19-related messaging, as seen in the El Paso alert. It addressed its public in terms of a religious holiday, indicating a lack of attention to diversity that could undermine some people’s trust in the system. <\/p>\n

Furthermore, the message came without a clear indication of its sender. Nearly half<\/a> of early COVID-19-related alerts left out this information. This omission can lead to confusion about the trustworthiness of messages and a hesitance to take them seriously.<\/p>\n


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