A survey of social media use in emergency situations: A literature review

Abstract

This study reviews literature on the use of Social Media (SM) in emergency response operations while identifying gaps in this research stream that need attention from Information Systems (IS) researchers. The research is grounded in past works and attempts to build on research on the application of SM in emergencies. It focuses on understanding the role of SM in the prevention, management and response to emergencies. The review contains a detailed literature exposition of IS and disasters journals. The appraisal of such research stream led the review to focus on the concept of digital volunteerism as an offshoot of crowdsourcing initiatives. Findings from the review reveal that previous studies overlooked the interfacing challenges between formal and traditional aid agencies on one hand and digital humanitarians on the other. Consequently, we identify gaps in the extant literature and propose areas of interest for future research.

The role of sense of community in harnessing the wisdom of crowds and creating collaborative knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Social media platforms enable social and emotional support, empowering people to create and sustain virtual relationships and communities, express feelings, and share experiences ( Howell and Taylor, 2011 , Abdulhamid et al, 2020 ). The literature (e.g., Liu et al, 2018 , Pang, 2020 , Schreurs et al, 2020 ) investigates how social media can strengthen and even build a robust sense of community.…”

“…According to Lev-On (2012) , sense of community, which refers to individuals’ subjective feelings of attachment and belongingness to a social structure, represents the primary driver of crowdsourcing in crises. The literature (e.g., Howell and Taylor, 2011 , Yates and Partridge, 2015 , Abdulhamid et al, 2020 ) confirms the role of sense of community and the advances in social media in promoting the concept of crowdsourcing during crises and emergencies.…”

“… Boyd and Martin (2020) confirmed that COVID-19 exposes people to novel thinking about a sense of community responsibility in the crisis. The tools of social media are novel and offer the preferred platforms to communicate, collaborate, and convey a sense of unity to large audiences, especially in times of crisis ( Gui et al, 2017 , Abdulhamid et al, 2020 ). These platforms have created renewable opportunities to bring individuals and groups together, building crowdsourcing communities that go beyond people’s sense of the self.…”

Use of Social Media Data in Disaster Management: A Survey

“…Previous surveys in this subject area have mostly focused on specific aspects; hence, they appear to be narrow and fragmented. Topics include: (i) digital volunteerism [8]; (ii) disaster management lifecycle [9], including Warning, Impact, Response, and Relief; and (iii) disaster response ( [10] and [11]). They consider aspects such as space, time, content, and network reach.…”

Crowdsourcing Data To Visualize Potential Hotspots For Covid-19 Active Cases In Indonesia

“…During this COVID-19 pandemic, crowdsourcing and social media have played an unprecedented role which can help understand disease dynamics in space and time when testing is limited (Al-Omoush et al 2020). This is because social media has been the preferred platforms to communicate, collaborate, and convey a sense of unity during the times of crisis e.g., during pandemic COVID-19 (Gui et al 2017;Abdulhamid et al 2020).…”