Post-disaster communities on social media: citizen participation in crisis communication after the Nepal earthquake, 2015

Author(s):  
Shubhda Arora
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-259
Author(s):  
Alicia Mason ◽  
Lynzee Flores ◽  
Pan Liu ◽  
Kenzie Tims ◽  
Elizabeth Spencer ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the crisis communication strategies used by the Caribbean medical tourism industry in the 2017 hurricane season, and also evaluate the quality of the disaster communication messages delivered via digital mediums. Design/methodology/approach This study includes a comprehensive, qualitative content analysis of 149 risk and crisis messages from 51 healthcare organizations distributed through digital media. The medical tourism providers (MTPs) include hospitals, medical tourism facilitators, practitioners/private physicians, specialty clinics, and dental and cosmetic providers. Findings Nearly half of the MTPs included in the data set delivered no post-disaster information to external audiences. The most prominent post-disaster message strategy utilized was conveying operational messages. Furthermore, an unexpected finding was the sheer magnitude of unrelated health-oriented and promotional destination marketing content disseminated before, during and after these events. Research limitations/implications This analysis excludes internal organizational channels of communication which may have been used to communicate risk and crisis messages during these events (i.e. employee e-mails, announcements made through intercom systems, etc.). Our analysis does not include content disseminated through medical tourism forums (i.e. Realself.com, Health Traveler’s Forum, FlyerTalk Forum). Practical implications Small-scale MTPs can improve on any weaknesses through proactive planning and preparation by creating organizational goals to complete basic crisis communication training courses and in doing so support the applied professional development of disaster and crisis responders in the Caribbean region. Second, MTPs exposed to similar risks of natural disasters may use these findings for comparative analysis purposes to support their own organizational planning. Finally, this study supports the continued utility of the National Center for Food Protection & Defense guidelines for analyzing and evaluating organizational performance. Originality/value Currently much of the academic scholarship of applied disaster communication narrowly focuses on the response strategies of one organization, or analyzes one social media platform at a time (i.e. Twitter). A strength of this analysis is the inclusion of an organizational sector (i.e. Caribbean medical tourism providers) and the range of platforms from which the content was captured (e.g. websites, org. blogs and social media networks).


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 124-143
Author(s):  
D.I. KAMINCHENKO ◽  

Modern digital technologies contribute to the emergence of new forms of social and political activity. One of these forms of participation is flash mob. Flash mobs are able to activate society for mass participation in various political events, which indicates the relevance and necessity of studying flash mobs as a modern form of citizen participation in social and political processes. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the flash mob from the standpoint of the intersection of several factors: technological, identification and motivational. The research methodology at the theoretical level is made up of the theory of the information society and the concept of “network identity”, on the empirical level - the method of sociological survey with the subsequent compilation of contingency tables. As a result of the study, it is established how widespread the practice of participation of active users of social media in various flash mobs is. Based on the data on the most significant opportunities for using social media, an interim conclusion is made about the existing motivational attitudes of the participants in flash mobs. Through the use of several determinants of network identity, a number of its properties are identified and considered, which are manifested in the communicative space of social media. It is established that the factor of participation / non-participation in the flash mob is not decisive in the manifestation of the properties of network identity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110249
Author(s):  
Peer Smets ◽  
Younes Younes ◽  
Marinka Dohmen ◽  
Kees Boersma ◽  
Lenie Brouwer

During the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, temporary refugee shelters arose in the Netherlands to shelter the large influx of asylum seekers. The largest shelter was located in the eastern part of the country. This shelter, where tents housed nearly 3,000 asylum seekers, was managed with a firm top-down approach. However, many residents of the shelter—mainly Syrians and Eritreans—developed horizontal relations with the local receiving society, using social media to establish contact and exchange services and goods. This case study shows how various types of crisis communication played a role and how the different worlds came together. Connectivity is discussed in relation to inclusion, based on resilient (non-)humanitarian approaches that link society with social media. Moreover, we argue that the refugee crisis can be better understood by looking through the lens of connectivity, practices, and migration infrastructure instead of focusing only on state policies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 232948842199969
Author(s):  
Hayoung Sally Lim ◽  
Natalie Brown-Devlin

Using a two (crisis response strategy: diminish vs. rebuild) × three (source: brand organization vs. brand executive vs. brand fan) experimental design, this study examines how brand fans (i.e., consumers who identify with a brand) can be prompted to protect a brand’s reputation during crises and how the selection of a crisis spokesperson can influence consumers’ evaluations of the crisis communication. Being buffers for their preferred brands, brand fans are more likely to accept their brand’s crisis response and engage in positive electronic word-of-mouth on social media. Brand fans are more likely to evaluate other brand fan’s social media accounts as a credible crisis communication source, whereas those who are not brand fans are more likely to evaluate brand and/or brand executives as credible. Findings provide theoretical applications in paracrisis literature pertaining to social media but also practical implications for brand managers to strategically utilize brand fans in crisis communication.


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