Students in the Global Studies program at Bishop O’Connell participated in a discussion on the effective use of social media in recent U.S. Coast Guard efforts.
Lt. Stephanie M. Young, United States Coast Guard, gave a multi-media presentation that focused on several important events, including the preparations and rescue operations during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. She is a social media officer in the Coast Guard Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. and is the lead content editor on the four-person social media team. She has also written extensively on this subject.
Lt. Young shared her thoughts about the changes that YouTube, Flicker, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have brought to the way that the Coast Guard is able to communicate with citizens before, during and after storms and incidents. As an example, she showed the YouTube video of the rescue of the crew of the H.M.S. Bounty during the hurricane off the coast of North Carolina. Not long after the incident, the video had well over one million views and helped tell a very true and compelling story, touching a much larger portion of the population than ever reached through traditional methods.
“Our students are resident users of social media applications,” said Global Studies coordinator, Whitney Webb, “This presentation showed them a window into how organizations like the Coast Guard are harnessing the advantages of this media to more effectively reach their community.”
View the now-famous YouTube video on the H.M.S. Bounty rescue.