How Types of Social Media are Aiding Homeland Security

According to a post on PCWorld by Ian Paul the Department of Homeland Security is doing away with it's current color-oriented terror alert system and taking up with social networking site to alert the public about threat levels. As the article mentions this can take place as soon as April 27th. Basically what this would entail is two levels of threat- elevated and imminent that would be distributed through posts on Facebook or Twitter. The point of this change is to ensure that the public is informed when threats appear. Ever since September 11 I think everyone can agree that the level of paranoia amongst the American people has spiked considerably and this change makes it more convenient and accessible for all people to be aware of any potential threats to the United States. Secretary Napolitano stated that the old way of alerting the public with colors would be dismissed and "In its place, we will implement a new system that's built on a clear and simple premise: When a threat develops that could impact you -- the public -- we will tell you."

Now if it wasn't clear enough even the government is jumping on to the social networking bandwagon. There is such a growing presence of people Online that it only makes sense that distributors of crucial information would be moving their main efforts to the Internet. I think the goal of the Department of Homeland Security has always been to reach the people to whom the alerts concern and the fact that they are throwing out an old system and coming up with a more interactive one shows their commitment to keeping the public informed. This new system will give them new capabilities in getting warning alerts across and I think will ultimately aid the way that they are viewed in the American peoples minds.