Disasters create an urgent need for people to deal with novel emergent problems. To respond effectively, people require information (about the event, support resources, actions, etc.) and the ability to interpret and use available information to deal with diverse, emergent hazard consequences and demands over time. This diversity renders top-down, homogeneous approaches to disaster communication ineffective. This paper examines whether a social media-based communication strategy, using Facebook, represents a more effective way of accommodating this diversity (e.g., event impacts, geographical, demographic, social), meeting the information needs of affected populations, and enhancing the quality of disaster communication. Data on how 479 people who used a Facebook page (Tassie Fires -We Can Help) specifically developed to assist response and recovery for the 2011 Tasmanian wildfire/bushfire disaster were obtained using an open-ended questionnaire. The accounts of people's experience of the event and their engagement with the Facebook page obtained from their responses to the questionnaire were analyzed using thematic analysis. The paper also discusses evidence regarding how the development of functional social relationships among those who engaged via the page enhanced the effectiveness of the disaster communication process. In particular, it discusses how engagement with the page and the way the page was managed by the Administrator facilitated the development of Sense of Community, a social structural characteristic known to influence the quality of disaster communication. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implication of the findings for future research into the relationship between Facebook use, disaster communication, and disaster recovery.Keywords: social media, sense of community, leadership, online community, disaster communication, disaster response inTrODUcTiOn Disasters expose affected citizens and social systems to demands and consequences that fall well outside the usual realm of people's experience. The complexity and novelty of these demands and consequences requires people, individually and collectively, to develop creative solutions to emergent problems. Disaster communication plays a pivotal role in providing the information people need to respond to these problems. While disaster communication has predominantly been the province of formal response agencies (e.g., emergency services etc.), online emergent groups are increasingly playing active roles in communication and information exchange (Blanchard et al., 2010;Vieweg et al., 2010).This paper presents a case study of disaster communication using a Facebook page [Tassie Fires -We Can Help (TFWCH)] specifically set up to provide a medium for communication during the response and recovery for a wildfire (bushfire) disaster in Tasmania, Australia in 2013. The study explored people's interpretation of their experience and how information made available using a Facebook resource influenced the nature and effectiveness of community-based d...

Future research is warranted to ascertain whether information that is embedded within a magic trick, rather than presented after the trick, is more likely to be remembered or understood later. This research could clarify when performance can enhance or disrupt student engagement.

Some research shows that people who often contemplate their future tend to be healthier. Yet the burgeoning literature on mindfulness demonstrates that people who are more attuned to their immediate experiences also enjoy many benefits. To reconcile these principles, many scholars recommend that people should distribute their attention, somewhat evenly, across the past, present, and future-but have not clarified how people should achieve this goal. We test the possibility that people who perceive their future as vivid and certain, called future clarity, might be able to both orient their attention to the future as well as experience mindfulness. Specifically, future clarity could diminish the inclination of people to reach decisions prematurely and dismiss information that contradicts these decisions, called need for closure-tendencies that diminish consideration of future consequences and mindfulness, respectively. In this cross-sectional study, 194 participants completed measures of mindfulness, consideration of future consequences, need for closure, and future clarity. Consistent with hypotheses, future clarity was positively associated with both mindfulness and consideration of future consequences. Need for closure partly mediated these relationships. Accordingly, interventions that empower people to shape and to clarify their future might generate the benefits of both mindfulness and a future orientation.

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