Hello everyone, my name is Irene Chen, and today I’ll be presenting
on understanding and designing for disaster preparation on social media.
While past work has looked at social media usage for disaster management, there has
been limited research on the role of social media for disaster preparation specifically.
Our research aims to address this gap by exploring how we might design social media sites to help
individuals and communities prepare for disasters. Our work leverages a community based disaster
preparedness approach, with the goal of encouraging at risk communities to
use their own resources to prepare for and withstand future disasters
Now, I’d like to briefly review the literature on social media use during disasters,
then discuss implications for our research and how it relates to disaster preparation
First, social media facilitates peer-to-peer information sharing among
at risk communities by affording users access to timely information from on-the-ground sources
Second, social media transforms latent ties into weak ties and aids in disaster
preparation by enabling users to seek support and access resources from their social networks
Third, social media encourages distributed cooperative work during
disasters by helping users work together to detect, classify, and correct rumors
We suggest that social media will function similarly for disaster preparation, such
that it would enable community members to search for and share information in real time, foster
community resilience through the formation and maintenance of social capital, and allow users in
geographically dispersed locations to contribute to the process of collective intelligence
For our study, we conducted 4 remote focus groups via Zoom
We recorded each focus group and transcribed them using TEMI, an automated transcription software
Then, we analyzed the data in 3 stages: open, axial, and selective coding
Each focus group consisted of two stages: exploratory research and a design workshop
First, we asked participants how they use social media to prepare for disasters,
with the goal of identifying pain points and challenges in their existing user journey
Then, we showed participants screenshots from 3 different disaster management applications:
Facebook (specifically, Facebook’s Safety Check feature),
FEMA, and Emergency by American Red Cross. Here, we have screenshots of the Emergency
by American Red Cross application For each application, we asked
participants what they liked, what they disliked, and what they would want to change
We identified 4 main findings, which surface the role of social media as an information
source and support network during disasters First, participants preferred to crowdsource
information from their social networks over official sources like news outlets
Social media affords users the ability to crowdsource information in real time,
rather than waiting for information from official channels - which can often be sporadic or delayed
Our research confirms previous findings that peer recommendations may be perceived
as more credible on social media One potential explanation for this
may be that users rely on different heuristic cues to make credibility
judgments about information during disasters Second, social media enables users to broadcast
requests for support to their social networks Social media supports the formation and
maintenance of social capital, which prior research has linked to community resilience
In turn, users feel more empowered to reach out to their networks on social media,
which may include strong as well as weak tie connections in their communities
Third, during disasters, social media replicates the process of collective
intelligence among geographically dispersed users Social media sites are unique in that they
enable not only distributed work, but also distributed support among social networks
This surfaces the bridging function of social media in mitigating the constraints
of geographical proximity during disasters Fourth, participants distinguished between Twitter
for 1 way information sharing and Instagram and Facebook for 2 way information sharing.
Participants preferred sites like Facebook and Instagram for two-way information sharing,
because it was easier to exchange information and communicate with others in their social network
On the other hand, participants preferred sites like Twitter for one-way information sharing,
because it was easier to search for and aggregate information from different accounts
We also identified several recommendations to inform future research and design
Information availability Because disasters are so time sensitive,
ensuring easy access to information is critical to decision making
Leveraging familiar tools allows users to turn to their existing
social networks to crowdsource information during disasters
Visual information Visual information is easier to digest than
long blocks of text, which is especially critical during disasters when users have a short attention
span and need to find information quickly The use of photos and videos can strengthen
the perceived credibility of unofficial information sources on social media
Information overload Our research suggests that too
much information can cause more stress and anxiety and make decision making more difficult for users
Limiting the amount of available information can reduce decision fatigue during disasters
Thank you all for listening! I’ve included my email and contact
information below, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions