Disaster communication behaviors in the U.S. and China: which channels do you use and with whom? (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2020
The concept of social vulnerability has been increasingly applied in disaster literature, but its communicative drivers have remained understudied. In this article, we put forward a heuristic framework for explaining how communication-related factors may adversely affect people's capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters. This will help researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the field of disasters and crises to systematically identify individual, social-structural, and situational factors of vulnerability that shape how people access, understand, and act upon information about hazards. We integrate ideas from recent literature on information disorders – various forms and effects of false or harmful information that are characteristic to modern communication ecosystems – to improve our understanding of how the new media environments may transform the ways people learn about hazards and cope with disasters.
The scope of the chapter is to provide an interpretive hypothesis on the different functions of different media in the aftermath of a disaster, drawing upon theoretical and empirical literature and case-studies in the light of Uses and Gratification perspective. Moving from the way people engage with media and interpersonal source, the chapter addresses disaster communication in the light of both collective needs and its related social functions, considering how people actually interact with communication to cope with disasters. A better understanding of the ways situational constraint, individual motivations, consumption patterns and communication cycles are arranged may improve our understanding of the whole disaster communication process, thus being very helpful to ground effective communication strategies, and to better understand the possible consequences of poor message shaping or use of wrong choices of channels. The paper will also discuss complementary roles of broadcast media, interactive digital environments and interpersonal channels to inform public discourse on disaster, improving preparedness measures, giving voice to exposed communities and informing both individual and collective decision, as well as mobilizing human and collective resources to foster return to normalcy. Keywords: Disaster communication, Media functions in disaster, Uses and gratification, Communication theory.
Journal of Applied Communication Research, 2023
Those affected by catastrophic events like hurricanes are burdened with the task of preparing for and responding to the threats of harm in addition to dealing with the emotionally taxing process of consuming and sharing disaster-related information. However, little is known about how threats and emotions during natural disasters impact media usage for information seeking and sharing. This study examined the relationship between the perceived threat of disasters (including disaster severity and involvement recognition), negative emotions, and information seeking and forwarding/sharing via different types of media. We surveyed over 600 adults in U.S. counties impacted by Hurricane Florence in 2018. Our findings show that negative crisis emotions mediated the relationship between threat appraisals and information seeking and sharing behaviors. In our discussion, we suggest how disaster/emergency communication professionals can prepare and respond to disasters by knowing how emotions influence individuals’ communicative behaviors.
Communication-related vulnerability to disasters: A heuristic framework
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2020
The concept of social vulnerability has been increasingly applied in disaster literature, but its communicative drivers have remained understudied. In this article, we put forward a heuristic framework for explaining how communication-related factors may adversely affect people's capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters. This will help researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the field of disasters and crises to systematically identify individual, social-structural, and situational factors of vulnerability that shape how people access, understand, and act upon information about hazards. We integrate ideas from recent literature on information disordersvarious forms and effects of false or harmful information that are characteristic to modern communication ecosystemsto improve our understanding of how the new media environments may transform the ways people learn about hazards and cope with disasters.
The Effect of Disaster Information in Online Media
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This research aims to measure the level of disaster preparedness and analyze disaster information in the online media on the level of preparedness Jakarta Capital City. This study uses a mix methods. Data were obtained from questionnaires and interviews. The results showed that the average level of disaster preparedness in teenagers were categorized medium, i.e. 63.78. Qualitative analysis of the results of the data collection is known that online media affect the improvement of disaster preparedness, but teenagers at State Junior High 3 Jakarta online media as a tool not optimally used.