Digital disasters: a novel methodological approach to assess social media as a tool for disaster management

Abstract

In a rapidly globalising world the way in which crises are managed is changing. This thesis theorises that social media, as a prominent example of modern technological developments, hold paramount importance in reducing risk during disasters. Such developments now have a plethora of applications that are valuable for resilience, response, recovery and risk reduction during the life-cycle phases of an event. While many developments and new methods are employed during disasters, there remain a range of limitations which the scientific community must seek to address in order to lessen the impacts of future crises. This thesis seeks to address some of these limitations through three main academic contributions to the field of disaster management. Firstly, a novel methodological approach is designed and implemented. This creates a conceptual framework to ascertain the users and uses of social media in modern disasters, and to track how and why social media content may change over the course of an event. This has been applied to data collected from the platforms Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as well as to qualitative interviews. This forms a mixed-methods approach which provides a new paradigm on the use of sites during crises. Secondly, the methodological approach is employed on two high-magnitude and highly contrasting disaster case studies: the Kaikoura earthquake (New Zealand, 2016), and hurricane Irma (Antigua and Barbuda, 2017). By using social media as a lens for analysis the results have generated unique insight into each case, as well as highlighting the underlying geographical, demographical, political and economic factors which affect the complex outcomes of disaster. It has also demonstrated that variations in platforms utilisation are dependent on a plethora of issues, which may be conceptualised across the pre-disaster, during, post-disaster and throughout-all-stages phases of an event. Thirdly, from this analysis the current role that social media holds has been scoped in the context of a globalising world, and five proposed recommendations for its improvement have been formulated. These are (1.) the creation of a range of downloadable media content aimed at resiliency efforts; (2.) the integration of online and offline volunteer strategies targeted at response efforts; (3.) the incorporation of social media specialists into response strategies; (4.) developing a lessons learned method focused on improving recovery; and (5.) enhancing tailored communications protocols throughout all stages of an event. This thesis concludes by emphasising the importance of research in this field given the increasing severity and frequency of global hazards, especially in conjunction with rapid socio-technical progression which have the power the shape the outcome of future events.

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ORCID for Mark Weal: orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-8786

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