How Do People Participate in Social Network Sites After Crises? A Self-Determination Perspective

Abstract

People increasingly rely on social network sites (SNSs) to find out timely information about crises. Thus, emergency managers are interested in how people participate and how to promote their participation in SNSs after crises. Based on self-determination theory, this study develops a theoretical model to examine the mechanisms through which different types of motivation contribute to various participating behaviors in SNSs after crises. Survey data were collected after the Ya’an earthquake, which occurred in China on April 20, 2013. Our results show that while autonomous motivation is positively related to posting new content about the earthquake, controlled motivation is positively related to commenting on others’ content about the earthquake. Furthermore, perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness are positively related to autonomous motivation. We suggest that emergency managers may want to promote different types of motivations, depending on the specific participating behavior preferred after crises.

People’s Motivation to Participate in Social Network Sites, Subsequent Behaviours, and Situation Self-Awareness following a Crisis: Evidence from the MH370 Flight Incident

“…Different participatory behaviours above can require different levels of cognitive effort (Wang, 2014). Notably, although browsing content forms the foundation of many other behaviours, it requires relatively less effort and is more popular than other behaviours (Benevenuto et al, 2009).…”

“…Notably, although browsing content forms the foundation of many other behaviours, it requires relatively less effort and is more popular than other behaviours (Benevenuto et al, 2009). Commenting on content (Wang, 2014) or sharing content requires slightly more effort, but remains cognitively easy. Lastly, posting new content is more difficult and requires more effort and engagement (Wang, 2014).…”

“…Commenting on content (Wang, 2014) or sharing content requires slightly more effort, but remains cognitively easy. Lastly, posting new content is more difficult and requires more effort and engagement (Wang, 2014). This study focuses on browsing, commenting on and sharing content, as these behaviours are important mechanisms for exchanging information on SNSs (Oh et al, 2013).…”

The Difference of Social Network Sites Explained with the Employment Seeking Process

“…The most participants are under 36 years old. That distribution of gender proportion as well as age group is typical for this topic because young people use more often the internet and SNS (Wang, 2014). Further has been the data collected with the support of the students who distributed the questionnaire to the participants of the survey.…”

“…Scientific interests: social network sites, social capital, recruiting processes E-mail: tom.sander@hotmail.de expanded to explain social network sites under consideration of the employment seeking process for Xing as business SNS and Facebook as private SNS. Aforementioned are the variables of interest for this research are the investment of time to use social network sites per week (Wang 2014), duration of membership in social network sites and the number of contacts lead to the assumption:…”