Social media has dramatically changed the way communication and accessing information occurs. Communication is seen as being easy and readily available on social media platforms. Whilst the ability to post and share information from other sources is a way for collation on one platform rather searching for it as individuals.
Surf Life Saving (Australia, New South Wales, Central Coast and Local Clubs) use a variety of Social Media Platforms as well as other methods to communicate and convey information for members and the public. For example, today I have received information in the following ways:
- Text message alert stating an important email was sent to my inbox
- A detailed email (from the SLSC I am a part of and SLSNSW)
The same information was also posted to:
- the club: Facebook page
- SLSCC: Facebook page (Instagram has not been updated in 4 days)
- SLSNSW: Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter
- SLS Australia: has not made official posts on its platforms yet
The ability of Surf Life Saving to reach thousands of people allows for the dissemination of important safety information to the members of surf clubs and the general public. The multiple modes used create greater impact across the population that they are able to reach.
Schools also use social media to communicate with students, parents and the wider community. Though they have many more restrictions on what details they can/should post. Schools still rely on the use of Newsletters, letters, emails, apps (such as schoolbag, classdojo etc) and phone calls to relay information and communicate with parents and the community, however Facebook can be utilised effectively to as an alternative mode of communication. That is not to say that social media can become a main form of communication, no, instead I mean that social media can affirm what has previously been communicated.
We are seeing today that our social media feeds are bombarded with a variety of information (of course mainly COVID-19 information from government bodies and the media) but this all leads to more people being aware and knowledgeable.