Facebook and Twitter, communication and shelter, and the 2011 Tuscaloosa tornado

Abstract

This paper represents one of the first attempts to analyse the many ways in which Facebook and Twitter were used during a tornado disaster. Comparisons between five randomly selected campus samples and a city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, sample revealed that campus samples used Facebook and Twitter significantly more both before and after the tornado, but Facebook usage was not significantly different after the event. Furthermore, differences in social media usage and other forms of communication before the tornado were found for age, education, and years lived in Tuscaloosa. Generally, age and education were inversely proportionate to social media usage. Influences on shelter-seeking actions varied between social media users and three random samples of non-social media users; however, it appears that social media respondents were likely to be using a smartphone simultaneously to access warning polygon information, to receive text message alerts, and to listen or respond to environmental cues.

The New Ecology of Tornado Warning Information: A Natural Experiment Assessing Threat Intensity and Citizen‐to‐Citizen Information Sharing

“…Finally, social media is used to describe the use of services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. These categories are similar to those used by other research in the area (Stokes and Senkbeil ).…”

Novel insights into views towards H1N1 during the 2009 Pandemic: a thematic analysis of Twitter data

“…However, it is also important to note that the vast majority of tweets on Twitter are open and can be viewed by anyone with having to register to Twitter. Twitter is a key communication and public health dissemination tool during outbreak situations (Ahmed, 2018;Ahmed, Bath, Sbaffi, & Demartini, 2018;Alonso-Muñoz, Marcos-Garc ıa & Casero-Ripoll es, 2017;McClellan, Ali, Mutter, Kroutil & Landwehr, 2017;Stokes & Senkbeil, 2017;Wekerle, Vakili, Stewart & Black, 2018). Twitter reports as having 316 million monthly active users, there being 500 million tweets per day, and 80% of active Twitter users using a mobile device (About Twitter, n.d.).…”

Perceptions and Expected Immediate Reactions to Severe Storm Displays

“…However, the researchers concluded that other aspects of the data suggested that these differences were due to the weathercasters’ accompanying commentary rather than the images themselves. Finally, Stokes and Senkbeil focused on information sources and channels, but they did note that 21 percent of their respondents cited being able to view the tornado track on television or website was an important determinant of sheltering in‐place.…”

“…Examination of demographic variables has found that having at least a high school diploma is positively related to responding to a warning message . Females are more likely than males to provide high p s judgments, avoid warning confirmation from environmental cues, and to shelter in safe locations, but there is conflicting evidence on their tendency to seek warning confirmation from social sources.…”