ebola-lessons-learned.pdf

BBC Media Action used the instant messaging app WhatsApp to broadcast media content, including photos, video, audio and announcements. Users would share this content with the people around them, creating an amplification effect. WhatsApp was also used as a tool for media practitioners to communicate with each other. At the height of the Ebola crisis, the BBC News division launched an Ebola WhatsApp information service, aimed at users in West Africa. It attracted more than 20,000 subscribers, who could receive audio, visual and written information from the BBC.This was the first time a news organisation used WhatsApp to cover a global health emergency. Versions of the service were created in local languages and BBC Media Action’s Sierra Leone WhatsApp channel had more than 15,000 subscribers by the end of 2015