Social Media, Rumors, and Hurricane Warning Systems in Puerto Rico

Abstract

Disaster warning systems are a form of risk communication that allow national, state, and local actors to prepare for, respond to, and understand disaster risk. The increased use of social media platforms to exchange information around disasters challenges traditional, centralized forms of risk communication. While social media is already used in emergency management to some degree, issues of trust and reliability of information limit the widespread adoption of social media into emergency management practices. This paper offers a case study of the role that social media information plays in Puerto Rico's hurricane early warning system and highlights the affordances and limitations of decentralized, heterarchical communication forms around disasters for federal, state, and local-level emergency management authorities. The case highlights differences in perception of social media information around disasters by emergency management authorities and by community members both before and after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Who do you trust? The digital destruction of shared situational awareness and the COVID-19 infodemic

“…This produces a general lack of trust by crisis management agencies and other social media users, in the crisis information produced on social media platforms. This can have catastrophic consequences for shared situational awareness through failure to detect and use important and relevant information or through the belief in, and the propagation of, mis-information produced on these platforms ( Bui, 2019 , Ehnis and Bunker, 2020 ) which can also impact and undermine social benefit and cultural cohesion in times of crisis ( Kopp, 2020 ).…”

Reliability Analysis and Evaluation of Social Media Accounts in Terms of Disaster Management After Kahramanmaraş Earthquake, 6 February 2023

“…Genel olarak sosyal medya, krizler sırasında bilgi yayma, koordinasyon ve halkla iletişim için bir platform sağlayarak acil müdahale ve afet yönetiminin ayrılmaz bir parçası haline gelmiştir (Mehta vd., 2016;Bui, 2019;Abedin vd., 2014).…”

A disaster by any other name?: COVID‐19 and support for an All‐Hazards approach

“…News media during the event highlights the case of one man spreading false information via Twitter during the event (Gross, 2012). The National Weather Service monitored social media for misinformation leading up to Hurricane Maria (Bui, 2019). After Hurricane Maria, there was substantial difficulty in assessing and communicating an accurate death toll due to the event, and difficulty managing or responding to rumors around this issue (Andrade et al, 2020).…”