We use cookies to improve your experience on our site and to show you personalised advertising. To find out more, read our privacy policy and cookie policy

You are here More Pages

Alumni

Alumni

Welcome to the alumni community

When you graduate from the University of Wollongong you become a UOW alumnus and join a global community of more than 163,000 leaders and innovators. The Alumni Relations Team connect with alumni and help you tap into the global alumni network. We want to celebrate your achievements, build your networks, facilitate your lifelong learning and provide opportunities to continue your relationship with UOW.

UOW Knowledge Series: Special Edition | How people respond to law and governance in a crisis

Hear from Associate Professor Cassandra Sharp on social media engagement during crises.

00:05
well we're here today with dr cassandra sharp
00:08
who is an associate professor at uow's school of law
00:12
her research relates to understanding the motivations expectations and
00:16
values of individuals as they respond to law in key crisis moments
00:20
a very pertinent topic as we continue to navigate our way through the COVID-19
00:24
pandemic which has thrown the world into a state
00:28
of heightened panic disease and anxiety welcome cassandra
00:32
well i think it's safe to say that 2020 has been a year like no other
00:36
and we've all had to adapt to changing circumstances
00:40
and new laws that have quickly introduced to be strictly enforced
00:44
so generally speaking how do you think the public have responded to the
00:48
restrictions that were introduced during the crisis well i think apart
00:52
from the hiccups that we had at the beginning with the toilet paper
00:54
stockpiling and the grocery hoarding i think australians have adapted
00:59
reasonably well as much as we can i think that given the uncertainty
01:05
around the the virus spreading quickly around the globe
01:08
and also around community transmission in those early days
01:12
we've did we've done the best we can to adapt as quickly as possible
01:16
i think wherever there is a kind of a trust
01:20
in our governments and our law makers that
01:23
their actions are appropriate and working we feel like we can
01:27
relinquish some of our freedoms in those moments so wherever we have that trust
01:32
and confidence we feel that we can give up a few of our
01:35
freedoms but i think that when we start to doubt
01:40
the imposition of restrictions then we might be a bit more reluctant
01:45
if we if we don't see that this is a huge
01:48
public health risk to ourselves and our loved ones
01:52
then we might be a bit more reluctant to have our rights diminished
01:56
absolutely certainly been a big time of adapting to change and i guess we're all
02:01
just doing the best we can in these times that's right
02:03
so what do you think about the way breaches of restrictions such as say
02:07
sitting down in a public place or lying on a beach which i know in the early
02:11
days was commonly moved on by police how do you
02:14
think that was handled by law enforcement agencies
02:17
i think at the start there were concerns that there was a potential for police
02:22
to to be heavy-handed in the issuing of fines
02:25
particularly in those areas which might seem to us
02:28
quite frivolous in the early days but i think that's
02:32
always going to be the downside of discretionary power when there are new
02:36
directions or regulations that are put into place that
02:39
impact upon our everyday activities we want to have this awareness and
02:45
assurance that there's going to be consistency
02:48
in application um of those those restrictions and
02:52
and a guidance on how we're to behave i can give you a
02:55
a personal example of that actually we were as a family during lockdown out on
03:00
a bike ride and we had gone for about an hour and
03:04
then we stopped in a park to have our snacks and we were quite a
03:08
distance away from anyone else just enjoying that time together as a family
03:12
when a police officer doing the rounds came over and encouraged us to move on
03:17
with our snacks and sort of said you know you probably should be moving on
03:21
and it was he was quite lovely it was all
03:23
fine there wasn't any angst and he certainly didn't mention fines or
03:27
penalties but we had a conversation about how
03:30
it's a really awkward sort of moment for the police officers in that regard and i
03:34
think the swiftness of the way that these
03:38
restrictions came into being they had a really
03:41
difficult job and so i think that in the end
03:46
we have to recognize that they had to adjust uh
03:50
quickly to those changes and i think now they've kind of moved on there's a shift
03:53
in focus potentially to those blatant disregard for the rules
03:58
where um you know people are having large house parties or 200 people and so
04:02
on so i think there's been a bit of a shift in focus
04:04
what is the usual process for introducing
04:07
temporary changes to law so in australia to change any law or to introduce a law
04:12
it needs to go through a parliamentary process so this is whether it's state or
04:16
federal that process is usually involves a lot
04:20
of discussion and debate and consultation and a lot of time
04:26
spent discussing the the impact of the new changes or the new law
04:31
and uh and how it will actually come into being and so
04:34
it's a time-consuming process from parliamentary
04:37
um discussion to approval to royal assent that can sometimes take
04:42
weeks months or even years in some cases with the COVID situation the
04:49
changes to laws at both the federal and state level
04:52
came into being within 24 hours to that point of being enforceable
04:56
so i think we can see how quickly things can move in a national emergency but it
05:00
usually is a time consuming process wow that certainly is fast in the scheme
05:04
of things isn't it and um is it unusual for the enhanced
05:08
police powers to be introduced so rapidly i mean
05:11
you did touch on the fact that you know it was a 24-hour process but
05:14
is this an unusual circumstance would you say yes it is
05:17
relatively unusual and that's because these
05:21
kinds of amendments to the law usually take a lot of time it's a rigorous
05:24
debate process that's what the process the parliamentary process is designed to
05:29
do it's its whole purpose and so it is relatively unusual to be
05:33
that fast the last time that rapid changes or
05:37
introduction to law has occurred with respect to police power was back in
05:42
2014 with the government's 16 point plan with respect to combating
05:49
alcohol violence so you might remember the one punch laws
05:52
that came into being which allowed police officers to
05:57
conduct drug and alcohol testing on suspected offenders
06:01
and those amendments were brought in within a week from parliamentary process
06:06
to enforceability and so at the time those laws those amendments were seen to
06:12
be a knee-jerk response to public demand but yes generally speaking um it isn't
06:19
usual for these types of um amendments to be so fast do you think
06:23
that there was adequate publicity and about the constantly changing state
06:27
of the laws during the pandemic you know i think there was criticism uh
06:31
in the early days too about you know potentially conflicting
06:34
messages and people weren't sure about what it is they can and they can't do in
06:38
their everyday lives particularly when out and about um but
06:42
you know we live in an age that's at the technology age where the
06:45
opportunities to communicate and disseminate information
06:49
is limitless almost and so i think they've done the state government and
06:54
the federal government and department authorities have done a
06:58
very concerted effort to bring
07:02
those uh changes and information to the awareness of the public
07:06
i mean if you think about it each of those departments have websites
07:10
uh that they're constantly updating there have been media releases there's
07:14
been briefings there's been press statements there's been campaigns
07:18
across all the major news networks and television and radio
07:22
advertisements and social media hashtags have been
07:26
deployed to help with that communication like um
07:29
hashtag ospol and hashtag coronavirus australia
07:33
i was going to say i think if you didn't know about what was going on in the
07:36
world right now you would have been you know virtually living under a rock so it
07:40
was certainly all consuming when it first came about
07:44
wasn't it um and then you mentioned social media
07:46
hashtags what role did social media play in helping
07:50
communicate the changing laws do you think well so as i mentioned
07:53
not only did the governments and the department the health department and all
07:56
those authorities have websites that they communicated their
08:00
changing impacts on but they also have a very strong social media presence
08:06
most of those departments have a facebook page and also
08:10
either instagram twitter or even some of them have youtube
08:14
channels it's so accessible and i think that's the key
08:18
to communicating key changes or information
08:22
in a rapidly changing environment it is so accessible i mean most people
08:27
have any of those platforms on their phones in the palm of their hand
08:33
almost daily you know all the time every day
08:36
and so we have this opportunity to disseminate information
08:40
to a wide range of people thousands and thousands of people
08:43
very quickly it is an environment where if you think about
08:49
it the social distancing requirements
08:54
and the isolation of this pandemic actually stimulated dependence on social
09:01
media for information so isolation when we really get down to
09:05
it fuels our dependence on digital technology to provide the
09:10
information that we're so desperately seeking in
09:13
those moments and i think that that individuals really rely on all of those
09:18
different platforms to get that information
09:20
because we're we're really um struggling to deal with life in those
09:26
times and that is a way that we can bring comfort to ourselves and awareness
09:29
in those moments absolutely it really makes you wonder
09:32
how it would have been without social media isn't it when you cast your mind
09:35
back what more than 20 years or two even less
09:38
15 years ago that's right you wouldn't have had
09:40
this uh mechanism to disseminate such information that's right we're living in
09:44
a wonderful age very powerful yes so how does social media commentary
09:49
actually challenge or transform understanding of the law
09:52
in times of crisis so with the proliferation of social media use with
09:56
so many people using social media and if
09:59
you think about it facebook has a 2.5 million
10:04
users instagram and twitter has uh between them 1.5 million users
10:09
with that proliferation of so many people using social media it is a key
10:13
way to not only disseminate information
10:17
but to transform ideas about how we are responding
10:21
to the various activities that are being impacted by
10:26
government restrictions and government action and so
10:29
um the the nature of social media is actually to amplify and intensify
10:37
the urgency with which we will respond in these situations and it acts as this
10:42
kind of conduit to facilitating the way in which
10:46
we express ourselves in in these moments my research certainly
10:50
shows that in the times of a crisis or
10:54
these significant events individuals do take to social media to share with
10:59
others their concerns or their critique or
11:02
their their um their responses and reactions to to
11:06
various uh activities of our governing authorities
11:10
if you take for example the mask at the moment it's a hot topic
11:14
people are trying to decide is the ma is wearing a mask
11:18
a moral right is it a legal obligation should the law
11:21
mandate the use of a mask this kind of debate is being critiqued
11:25
and discussed on a rolling basis on social media and and
11:30
it allows for that to be um facilitated amongst a wide range of
11:36
people and so what lessons do you think the
11:38
governments can take away from the way people have responded to the virus shut
11:42
down and the way information was shared on
11:44
social media about the restrictions so i think the link between crisis and
11:50
threat and government policy has been a real
11:55
topic in the literature over the previous years and and i think that the
11:58
research does indicate that we or individuals in society do
12:04
believe that we live in a dangerous place and that it's the role of our
12:08
governments and the law to protect its citizens and to keep them
12:12
safe it's really crucial that our policymakers and our
12:16
governments understand the way that individuals and
12:20
communities will respond to their actions to their
12:25
decision-making in that in that kind of crisis or event or
12:29
moment and i think one of the things that it would
12:32
be important for governing authorities to recognize is
12:35
that social media provides this unprecedented access
12:39
to our community's views on the way in which they're operating and the
12:44
the work that they're doing and how that impacts upon our daily lives
12:48
so the impact of law on an individual and a community
12:52
can be interpreted by looking at social media comments
12:56
it's it's the it's the place where you can go and see
13:00
publicly what people are thinking and feeling and responding in that way
13:04
it's like an immediate survey of public without having to actually do a survey
13:08
in a sense yeah and if there is if there is panic
13:11
and confusion and uncertainty and distrust that's
13:14
percolating in the public consciousness then it's a real opportunity for the
13:18
government and authorities to kind of calm fears and to take action quickly
13:24
absolutely well i just have one more question for you cassandra
13:28
the world as we know it has changed forever and it's likely we'll be
13:32
managing restrictions for some time yet how could authorities work with the
13:37
public to achieve more widespread compliance
13:40
and best case scenario outcomes i think particularly as the pandemic has
13:44
progressed people are becoming mentally saturated
13:48
overwhelmed and potentially confused about where do
13:51
we stand now with various restrictions i think clear and decisive and
13:57
calm communication was really important i think that crisis like these provide
14:03
the paradoxical potential to either unite or to divide
14:09
australians and i think that tapping into that
14:13
from the government perspective is really important the way
14:16
in which they access and use social media
14:19
will be key to facilitating one of those particular polarizing
14:24
responses the prime minister several years ago in
14:28
relation to security in 2017 said that
14:33
the public wants their lawmakers and their government to put the safety
14:39
of their people first and to know that they're doing
14:42
that and i think this is this is really important legitimacy is
14:46
crucial for engendering trust in the australian
14:50
public and so i think that it's a really
14:53
important aspect for our governments to take on
14:57
board to take note of where people are at with their decision
15:02
making and to respond and to tailor their
15:05
response for that and i think one thing i've noticed
15:10
lately is that people are becoming more numb
15:12
to instruction and to statistics and i noticed that with the advertising
15:18
from our governing authorities in recent days
15:22
that there's been a bit of a shift a shift in gears from
15:25
from say the mind to the heart so there was an advertisement that ran
15:29
where instead of actually touting instruction it was
15:33
a family a mum and a dad talking about their daughter who was working on the
15:37
front line during this pandemic and so it's
15:39
speaking through story to that idea that we need to take care
15:43
of one another and we do it not just for ourselves but for others
15:46
and so that's potentially a way to tap into
15:49
speaking to the community where they're at
15:53
social media is as it engages the whole being
15:56
the whole human person and so i think it's good for governments to do that too
16:02
fantastic well cassandra that's been so insightful thank you so much for
16:05
speaking with me today and we look forward to hearing more
16:08
about this fascinating area as social media continues to take shape into the
16:16
future

Your career journey

You've got your UOW degree, but there's always more ways to add value to your education and career journey. We've provided you with a little guidance along the way by curating some of our favourite resources.

Explore the journey

Making better financial decisions

There’s nothing like a global pandemic to force us to reassess our lives and lifestyle. Things we previously took for granted have suddenly leapt into focus, and we are paying much closer attention to the things that keep us safe and secure.

Read more

Alumni events

See more events
The Future of Business Conversation Series: Next Practices Beyond Best Practices

The Future of Business Conversation Series: Next Practices Beyond Best Practices

Online
Online via Zoom
See for yourself
Toronto Alumni Chapter virtual social mixer

Toronto Alumni Chapter virtual social mixer

Virtual event
See for yourself

Knowledge Series

The UOW Knowledge Series showcases University of Wollongong thought leaders in various locations, discussing a range of engaging topics. Join us for thought-provoking lectures followed by a Q&A and an opportunity to engage with speakers and fellow alumni.

Watch recordings

UOW Outlook Magazine

Stories and profiles about University of Wollongong alumni, UOW academics and our latest ground-breaking research. The publication is designed to serve the University’s global alumni community, however the content is relevant to a much broader audience.

Read more Stories from UOW

Dream Job Ready podcast

Hosted by UOW alumnus Dane Sharp, the Dream Job Ready podcast aims to help, inspire, empower and prepare the next generation of young professionals to get their dream job.

Listen and subscribe
Close