10 Page Research methods paper

Hicks 2

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature Review

9 April 2020

Texting 911 – An Alternative and Inclusive Approach to Emergencies

Typically, nobody wants to be in a situation requiring emergency services; however, sometimes, one is in the wrong place at the wrong time. People face different dangerous situations on American soil, each requesting help in the ways available to them. Technological advancements allow for relaying of information to and from one end to another within seconds, and 911 services have come a long way. Over the years, researchers have been evaluating the necessary steps towards making it easier for all Americans to provide information or get help through 911 services, highlighting the current gaps in service provision and their potential solutions. This literature review attempts to show that to avail help or get information from both abled and disabled members of the community, domestication of 911 services is crucial.

Impact of texting 911

In a study conducted by Yabe (2016), the author notes that people highly willing to pay (WTP) for texting emergency services have characteristics like, having interests in an emergency texting service, being part of campus emergencies, relatively old, having a higher per capita income compared to those less willing, and largely Americans not Internationals. The force behind showing interest in emergency texting services is securing their personal safety (Yabe, 2016). The WTP for emergency texting services is not particularly prominent with a specific set of individuals, that is, people with or without hearing loss (Yabe, 2016). The author finds out that while 89% of the respondents have interests in emergency texting services, 52% prefer calling without alerting the offenders.

While still reviewing the impact of texting 911, Sheldon (2017) brings the dimension of perception of danger, meaning that respondents perceive warning messages sent through texts with much seriousness, unlike those sent via social media. Perception of a threat by a message recipient is critical for their next course of action. Respondents weigh in on the gravity of the impending danger before choosing a medium of communication to alert others, and in this case, a text message for threats they perceive as less serious, and a phone call for more serious cases (Sheldon, 2017). Sheldon (2017) further clarifies that to prevent disregard of emergency messages, the sender needs to include an additional statement describing the seriousness of a situation in the emergency text alerts. While comparing the perceptions of warnings sent via synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication, it appears that people treat synchronous communication with a heightened level of urgency (Sheldon, 2017). 

Small sample size effect

In all studies, the findings relate directly to the sample size used by a researcher. A large sample size brings more variables to the study, unlike a small sample size. Boatright-Horowitz, Olick & Amaral (2004) note in their study that by using fewer male than female participants, the study fails to reveal gender differences in the participants’ reactions to different domestic violence scenes. This important aspect of the study becomes less effective in making deductions from the findings. The authors acknowledge that using larger sample size, as the public, would provide better gender effects for their study (Boatright-Horowitz, 2004). 

Yabe (2016) also conducts a study with a small sample size, and later admitting that with a larger sample, the overall university population’s total values of texting emergencies would have been higher than his findings. Collecting data from just one university leaves a lot to speculate, being that different dynamics come into play from one university to another, public or private university, and one state to another (Yabe, 2016). The small sample size also provides an assumption that many people own mobile phones, and this may not apply to all areas within the country. The small sample size effect creates a lot of unanswered questions within a study and fails to address other correlating issues that affect the study both directly and indirectly.

Fear to call 911

Many emergency situations go unreported due to various reasons, one being fear to call 911. Most governments encourage citizens to share information with security enforcers to help themselves willingly and others in need, however, this mostly fails to work. For instance, overdose witnesses are unwilling to call 911 in situations where the overdose occurred in a private setting (Jakubowski, 2017). The fear of police involvement or arrests in private settings is one of the underlying reasons why people fear to call 911 because of their reluctancy to endanger those close to them (Jakubowski, 2017). This fear may lead to preventable deaths as the victim remains unattended to by emergency professionals or gets help when it is too late. Jakubowski et al. (2017) outline that people fear to call 911 when the victim is a relative, compared to when dealing with strangers 

Boatright-Horowitz, Olick & Amaral (2004) provide participants with a series of scenes with violent and non-violent abusive behavior seeking justification for calling 911. Justifying whether a 911 call was necessary or not shows the willingness for a person to seek help from emergency service providers or not. In scene 5, there are forms of abusive behavior despite no verbal threats or physical abuse, but only 13% saw the justification of a 911 call (Boatright-Horowitz, 2004). From their study, this shows that the perception of a situation may make a witness willing or less willing to call 911 even if there is evidence of abuse. A witness may fear to call 911 depending on how serious or less serious they think an offense has been committed.

Domestication of the 911 system

Tailoring emergency systems to assist with all situations may look like a difficult or unattainable task, but it becomes necessary when some citizens are unable to access help due to discardable restrictions. Emergency preparedness experts encourage communication via text messaging during disasters because making non-essential calls may prevent 911 calls from getting through (Sheldon, 2017). Sheldon (2017) explains that natural disasters may interfere with cell phone towers, creating a gap during a crisis that needs alternative forms of communication by emergency services providers. The author further proposes the use of social media for reaching a wider audience during disasters since the platforms allow sending of videos of photos that may guide people on what to do during disasters. 

911 resists domestication due to the inexperience of most users with its use as a type of communication (Ellcessor, 2019). 911 has some laid of guidelines that call-takers use to assess emergency calls made to them to provide the next course of action to the caller and first respondents. Ellcessor (2019) points out that some calls do not meet the laid-out expectations of emergency situations leading to miscommunications with call-takers. The structure of 911 requires a person to describe and justify their need for emergency services (Ellcessor, 2019). The effect of 911’s resistance to domestication is that it makes it difficult for all to callers to conform to its expected communicative structure, denying services to non-native-English speakers and disabled callers (Ellcessor, 2019). The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) that required 911 centers to provide direct (TTY) access to their services was one of the steps towards the domestication of the 911 system (Ellcessor, 2019). The author asserts that the launch of text-to-911 services could help change infrastructural dimensions of 911 through emerging user practices and the inclusion of people with disabilities in a mainstream format.

Yabe (2016) shares the directives issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that all Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS) providers and covered text providers must support text-to-911 in all areas within the country where Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) can receive texts. Subsequently, FCC directed CMRS and covered text providers to include an automatic bounce-back message when the text-to-911 services were unavailable to users for them to look for alternative methods of seeking assistance (Yabe, 2016). Proposals for real-time text (RTT) to replace text telephone (TTY) devices for the deaf and hard of hearing callers is an efficient transition for text-to-911 services (Yabe, 2016).

Conclusion

           Research into the impact of implementing text-to-911 to enable a wider reach for emergency services brings its challenges and solutions as the country moves forward. Access to emergency services is every citizen’s right, therefore necessary designs into 911 services that make it possible to reach both people with and without disabilities in times of a crisis increase the chances of saving more lives. These radical changes, like moving away from TTY to RTT, are steps towards the goal of domestication of 911 services. The research community should continue exploring more options by using larger sample sizes and adding more variables to their research methods to come up with a bigger picture that addresses most, if not all, the underlying issues that need fixing. Emergency service providers play important roles before, during, and after the 911 calls, making sure each citizen gets access to their urgent needs.

References

Boatright-Horowitz, S. L. (2004). Calling 911 during episodes of domestic abuse: What justifies a call for help? Journal of Criminal Justice, 32(1), 89–92. DOI:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2003.10.007

Ellcessor, E. (2019). Call If You Can, Text If You Can't: A Dismediation of U.S. Emergency Communication Infrastructure. International journal of communication, 13, 4487–4506.

Jakubowski, A. K.-R. (2017). Knowledge of the 911 Good Samaritan Law and 911-calling behavior of overdose witnesses. Substance Abuse, 39(2), 233–238. DOI:10.1080/08897077.2017.1387213

Sheldon, P. (2017). Emergency Alert Communications on College Campuses: Understanding Students’ Perceptions of the Severity of a Crisis and Their Intentions to Share the Alert With

Parents and Friends. Western Journal of Communication, 82(1), 100-116. DOI:10.1080/10570314.2017.1308005

Yabe, M. (2016). Students, Faculty, and Staff's Willingness to Pay for Emergency Texting. Journal of Applied Security Research, 11(4), 437-449. DOI:10.1080/19361610.2016.1210486