Social Media: Heaven or Hell?

Keynote Speech:

Mahmoud Shabeeb Regional Communications Officer for the Syria Crisis, Care

Moderator:

Lisa Stadler Journalist, Social Media Standard

Panel members:

Ingrid Brodnig Journalist, Profil
Timo Lüge Journalist, Aid Worker
Thomas Seifert Journalist, Wiener Zeitung
Mahmoud Shabeeb Regional Communications Officer for the Syria Crisis, CARE

The impact of social media on a global information flow and society’s opinion making processes has increased drastically within the last decade.

From tweets in Egypt to blogs in Syria and Facebook campaigns in Sudan, the world recognized the impact “civil journalists” create through sharing their reality within seconds. For the humanitarian world, social media made it possible to hear the voices of disaster affected people, even if the area of those people is not accessible. Innovative methods, like transferring messages from platforms like Twitter into people’s phones has positive impacts, but simultaneously also bears negative risks.

Does social media revolutionise humanitarian assistance? How to deal with negative effects, like data overflow and protection of the users? Heaven or Hell?