Acknowledging technological and cultural evolutions to communicate seismic information to the public.

Over the past decade technologies and social media have been praised a revolution in the way seismic risk and information was communicated to the public. For instance, LastQuake system is crowdsourcing earthquake detections and providing timely information and safety tips to citizens through social media and a free app now used by over 900K users over the world. Through a series of other practical examples and case studies, among which Earthquake Network system and Raspberry Shakes use, we show that smartphones and social media along with other technologies have indeed shaped new ways to detect earthquakes. They also enable to collect key information in order to raise situational awareness and in the end, inform the public in a timely and geotargeted manner, passing from a top-down approach to a two-way communication. Technology use also led to a significant increase of citizens’ role and implication in seismology, not only raising their interest for the risk but also for the science that relies beneath it.

Our analysis demonstrates that in order to be successful, and thus to reduce anxiety and create a trust relationship between scientists and citizens, efficient communication strategies must be based on a thorough knowledge of both risk culture and technological culture. Indeed, such assessment of the audience enables to better meet public’s various information needs in terms of content, format and time frame.

However, technologies as well as their uses have kept evolving and seismologists are now facing new challenges to communicate key information. For instance, in an increasing number of cases, misinformation and rumours about earthquake predictions become viral on social media. This is a critical issue to be addressed, especially in a context of development of both earthquake early warning systems and earthquake operational forecast. Additionally, citizen communication and information routines are evolving, especially with the rise of messaging apps or the development of new social media. However, to date, messaging apps are not designed in a way that facilitates communication of critical seismic information by seismic institutions.

We conclude that lessons learned from previous challenges, especially through a constant return of experience process, will be useful to address contemporary ones. Communicating towards the public is a necessity during all phases of the crisis cycle, from a scientific and risk perspective. Getting to know the audience’s needs, habits, language, emotions or cultural background and show them empathy is a critical part of efficient communication strategies. Finally, technologies should be seized as an opportunity to engage with citizens and build a lasting trust relationship.