The Application of Smartphones and Social Media in Crisis Conditions: Global Experiences and Some Lessons for Iran

The significant growth of smartphones and social media evolved crisis communications, and this has led the related businesses to pay more attention to it. Nevertheless, the full potential of these new technologies has not yet been used during crisis circumstances. In this policy-making paper, we first examine the citizen-centered models of crisis communication and recognize the primary ways to use social media and smartphones before, during, and after the crisis using the recent global experiences as well as theoretical foundations. We will then evaluate the new state of crisis communications in Iran and, in line with global experience in using social media and smartphones in crisis communications, provide solutions for using new technologies for crisis communications in Iran. 
Smartphones and social media developed horizontal, bottom-up, citizen-centered communication patterns, rather than directional patterns from top to bottom, in all situations, especially during crisis communication. Social media plays a vital role in managing crisis conditions in all three stages of before, during, and after the crisis. Iran's crisis management system uses one-sided communication patterns with the citizens included in the crisis, and the mass media are the primary sources of communication with people in crisis conditions. It is possible to use proper solutions in a crisis management system to employ smartphones, and social media in crisis situations, including policy-making to use new technologies, building social media accounts, online conversation, and using the applications of mobile phones, the integration of social media and traditional media and the improvement of the Internet and mobile infrastructure in all regions of the country.