Studying crisis communication on social media: conceptual patterns and methodological concerns

The aim of this chapter is to build a conceptual framework for analysing the role of social media in major crises, with special regard to emergency response, from a scholarly research point of view. Existing literature has hitherto addressed the topic aiming at contributing both to public policies in emergency situations and to scholarly research. Social media have served as a powerful tool for emergency management and disaster relief in many recent emergency situations, in particular natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. (Shklovski, et al., 2010) and the Queensland floods in Australia (Bruns, et al., 2012), to major earthquakes worldwide. The huge number of messages and interactions generated on social media during emergencies, moreover, constitute an unprecedented source for understanding the specific communication patterns taking place on social media, with regard to information spread and influence dynamics. Many different disciplines, ranging from social sciences to computer science, have dealt with this subject. In this chapter we will adopt a social science perspective, mainly building on the theoretical frameworks and the methodological concerns that have been developed in the field of Internet Studies. After introducing the perspective of Internet Studies on technology mediated communication and social media, we will analyse the role of social media in emergency response, mainly focusing on information spread dynamics, on the perspective of emergency services and institutions, and on citizens activities beyond information spread. We will conclude by providing some conceptual and methodological remarks