Conclusion: Evacuations and Transmedia Vulnerability

Abstract

This chapter brings together findings from previous chapters to consider the vulnerability of evacuations to transmedia attacks or pranks. Although the use of social media in infrastructure disruption or terrorism has been considered the implications of transmedia attacks have not. Transmedia refers to the use of storytelling across multiple media. In terms of the evolution of terrorism there has been a movement from a reliance on old media to spread a political message to an old/social media mix that has antecedents of transmedia storytelling. Using research on the United Kingdom warning and informing system, and research on mass population response involving social media, I consider the vulnerabilities in this system to transmedia disruptions and attacks. I illustrate this through a fictitious scenario of a ‘dirty bomb’ attack on Manchester city centre. In the conclusion to the paper I consider the implications of transmedia terrorism for resilience through examining it pedagogically. I argue that transmedia terrorism can be considered to be pedagogically diverse as it makes use of various different methods of learning. Although this may mean lead one to consider that resilience is also a transmedia matter I consider that the didactic nature of state information and visceral forms of street level resilience are superior areas for building resilience against such attacks. I also conclude by restating the need for inter-disciplinary research in this area.