Unveiling cultures in emergency response communication networks on social media: following the 2016 Louisiana floods

Abstract

While culture in emergency management has gained attention from the field of risk communication, few have systemically dealt with the nuances of general culture involved in the formation and differentiation of risk communication. To fill this gap, this research aims to first examine cultural nuances from the 2016 Louisiana flood response by primarily focusing on communications embedded in social media. The results from social network analysis and content analysis highlight that the flood response communication had strong cultural characteristics, highlighting the notion that of the cultures in Louisianafaith-based, local authority, and nonprofits-were the prominent cultural responders in the flood response communication. In particular, cultural similarity in both intra/inter group response communication was observed, with each communication group comprising actors who shared a common cultural background and spoke similar keywords.

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

“…Relying on a small sample size, Bosch () finds that end users report various uses of social media, with limited interaction and satisfaction with communication with government actors. Finally, Yeo, Knox, and Jung () suggest that culture was a predominant force in communication and response patterns on Twitter after the 2016 floods.…”

Public Attention to a Local Disaster Versus Competing Focusing Events: Google Trends Analysis Following the 2016 Louisiana Flood

“…Bosch () analyzed survey data to understand the public's use of social media platforms (i.e., Facebook and Twitter) in the face of cell phone service disruption after the storm. Yeo, Knox, and Jung () applied social network and content analysis to capture cultural tendencies in risk communication on Twitter, as well as measure the response communication network. Scott and Errett () studied the social media content from federal, state, and local government Facebook and Twitter posts during the flooding disaster.…”

“…4). Estimated damage ranged between $10 and $15 billion, nearly 60,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and 13 people were killed (Hersher, ; Yan, ; Yeo, Knox, and Jung, ). Much of the damage was because forecasts failed to predict the extreme precipitation experienced.…”

“…Scholars have studied the 2016 Louisiana Flood from various perspectives (Bosch, ; Bright and Bagley, ; Darr, Cate, and Moak, ; Scott and Errett, ; Yeo, Knox, and Jung, ); however, none focused specifically on the public's attention. Our study contributes to the growing public attention literature by comparing the flood with other disasters of varying types, scale, and scope; we systematically assess the local disaster against national and international events occurring simultaneously.…”

Cross-Sector Emergency Information Networks on Social Media: Online Bridging and Bonding Communication Patterns

“…More recent studies suggest an increase in such cross-sector, boundary spanning behavior (Bennett, 2018; Wukich & Mergel, 2016; Yeo, Knox, & Jung, 2018). For example, Bennett (2018) demonstrated how emergency management agencies operating in Nebraska sought out Twitter content from organizations not listed in their formal emergency operations plans.…”