162
X. Jin
stage. The following sections offer a review of how social media impacts disaster
and risk communication.
9.2.2 Disaster and Risk Communication on Social Media
Social media has been shown to impact risk and crisis communication in multiple
ways. For instance, social media has been used as information and news sources for
communities (Cameron et al. 2012; Morris et al. 2010; Sin and Kim 2013). With social
media, the public and governmental agencies can have “interactive, collaborative,
conversational, and community-based” communication (Spence et al. 2015, p. 172).
As Alexander (2014) emphasized, appropriate usage of social media in risk and
emergency management can serve the following functions:
• Listening. Social media makes it possible to collect public opinions. Marken
(2007) posited that social media enables ordinary citizens to voice their opinions
and experiences. Recent research also suggests that crisis information influentials
on social media can directly generate information and impact the information flow
(Jin, 2020).
• Monitoring. Social media can be used to understand what the public is concerned
about and how individuals respond to specific emergency events. With this
approach, rumors can be deterred (Bird et al. 2012).
• Emergency planning. It is important to explore social-mediated disaster and risk
communication in emergency management plans (Jin, 2020; Lachlan et al. 2014;
Lin et al. 2016a, b). Recent research discovered that the discussion about air
pollution on Sina Weibo (one Chinese micro-blog platform) impacted the Chinese
government’s responses to air pollution (e.g., releasing values of fine particles
PM 2.5 and building PM 2.5 monitors across the country; see Jin and O’Hair 2020).
• Promoting social cohesion. According to an American Red Cross survey (Blanchard et al. 2010), 24% of the United States population and 31% of the internet
users expressed that they would keep their family and friends updated about their
safety through social media.
Despite the potential values of implementing social media usage during disasters,
social media has not been fully utilized as a communication channel (Lin et al. 2016a,
b). Previous research suggests that Twitter was largely used for emotional release
rather than sharing disaster-related information during Hurricane Sandy. In addition,
the majority of information shared on social media was from ordinary citizens, not
governmental agencies (Lachlan et al. 2014).
Another challenge for current research is that chaotic systems of disasters are hard
to be clarified. Previous researchers have distributed post-disaster surveys that are
built on people’s memory about their experiences during disasters (Sutton et al. 2008)
and conduct content analysis with limited text samples from news reports or posts
on social media (Lachlan et al. 2014; Spence et al. 2015). These studies often only
X. Jin
stage. The following sections offer a review of how social media impacts disaster
and risk communication.
9.2.2 Disaster and Risk Communication on Social Media
Social media has been shown to impact risk and crisis communication in multiple
ways. For instance, social media has been used as information and news sources for
communities (Cameron et al. 2012; Morris et al. 2010; Sin and Kim 2013). With social
media, the public and governmental agencies can have “interactive, collaborative,
conversational, and community-based” communication (Spence et al. 2015, p. 172).
As Alexander (2014) emphasized, appropriate usage of social media in risk and
emergency management can serve the following functions:
• Listening. Social media makes it possible to collect public opinions. Marken
(2007) posited that social media enables ordinary citizens to voice their opinions
and experiences. Recent research also suggests that crisis information influentials
on social media can directly generate information and impact the information flow
(Jin, 2020).
• Monitoring. Social media can be used to understand what the public is concerned
about and how individuals respond to specific emergency events. With this
approach, rumors can be deterred (Bird et al. 2012).
• Emergency planning. It is important to explore social-mediated disaster and risk
communication in emergency management plans (Jin, 2020; Lachlan et al. 2014;
Lin et al. 2016a, b). Recent research discovered that the discussion about air
pollution on Sina Weibo (one Chinese micro-blog platform) impacted the Chinese
government’s responses to air pollution (e.g., releasing values of fine particles
PM 2.5 and building PM 2.5 monitors across the country; see Jin and O’Hair 2020).
• Promoting social cohesion. According to an American Red Cross survey (Blanchard et al. 2010), 24% of the United States population and 31% of the internet
users expressed that they would keep their family and friends updated about their
safety through social media.
Despite the potential values of implementing social media usage during disasters,
social media has not been fully utilized as a communication channel (Lin et al. 2016a,
b). Previous research suggests that Twitter was largely used for emotional release
rather than sharing disaster-related information during Hurricane Sandy. In addition,
the majority of information shared on social media was from ordinary citizens, not
governmental agencies (Lachlan et al. 2014).
Another challenge for current research is that chaotic systems of disasters are hard
to be clarified. Previous researchers have distributed post-disaster surveys that are
built on people’s memory about their experiences during disasters (Sutton et al. 2008)
and conduct content analysis with limited text samples from news reports or posts
on social media (Lachlan et al. 2014; Spence et al. 2015). These studies often only