Brandt Heather M, Turner-McGrievy Gabrielle, Friedman Daniela B, Gentile Danielle, Schrock Courtney, Thomas Tracey, West Delia
Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health (Drs Brandt, Turner-McGrievy, and Friedman and Ms Schrock), and Technology Center to Promote Healthy Lifestyles (TecHealth) (Dr West), University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina; Levine Cancer Institute, Carolinas HealthCare System, Charlotte, North Carolina (Dr Gentile); and Department of Health and Human Performance, Berea College, Berea, Kentucky (Dr Thomas).
J Public Health Manag Pract. 2019 Sep/Oct;25(5):E6-E12. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000000841.
Social media has played an increasing role in the response to emergency situations through information exchange and efforts to promote recovery. Understanding more about how social media users share and re-share information is particularly important to help emergency response entities determine best strategies for expanding reach and impact through social media in disseminating emergency messages.
This study examined the role and use of Twitter as a response and recovery strategy before, during, and after historic rainfall and flooding in the Midlands region of the greater Columbia, South Carolina, area in October 2015.
A cross-sectional, thematic, and descriptive examination of Twitter data across 4 time periods (before the historic rainfall and flooding, during, immediately after a boil water advisory period, and 6 months later) was conducted.
Twitter posts containing "#SCFlood" with a focus on the Midlands region were extracted and analyzed.
The most common themes of tweets across all 4 time periods were weather conditions, devastation description, resource distribution, volunteerism, actions to reduce threats to health, and appreciation. Tweets mostly originated from individual users, followed by media outlets, governmental agencies, and nonprofit agencies. Tweets from the first 3 time periods were largely focused on built and natural environment devastation and action to reduce threats to health, and tweets from the fourth time period were primarily focused on cleanup and repair.
Twitter was utilized widely as a communication tool to provide time-sensitive and critical information before, during, and after the event. Ensuring that key social media users have developed disaster communication strategies inclusive of Twitter seems important in aiding response to and recovery from natural disasters.
社交媒体通过信息交流和促进恢复的努力，在应对紧急情况中发挥着越来越重要的作用。更多地了解社交媒体用户如何分享和再分享信息，对于帮助应急实体确定通过社交媒体扩大覆盖面和影响力以传播紧急信息的最佳策略尤为重要。
本研究考察了2015年10月南卡罗来纳州大哥伦比亚地区中部地区历史性降雨和洪水发生之前、期间及之后，推特作为一种应对和恢复策略所发挥的作用及使用情况。
对4个时间段（历史性降雨和洪水发生之前、期间、开水供应建议期刚结束后以及6个月后）的推特数据进行了横断面、主题性和描述性分析。
提取并分析了包含“#SCFlood”且聚焦中部地区的推特帖子。
在所有4个时间段内，推文最常见的主题包括天气状况、破坏描述、资源分配、志愿服务、减少健康威胁的行动以及感恩。推文大多来自个人用户，其次是媒体机构、政府机构和非营利机构。前3个时间段的推文主要聚焦于建筑和自然环境破坏以及减少健康威胁的行动，而第4个时间段的推文主要聚焦于清理和修复。
在事件发生之前、期间和之后，推特被广泛用作一种通信工具，以提供时效性强且关键的信息。确保关键社交媒体用户制定包括推特在内的灾害通信策略，对于协助自然灾害的应对和恢复似乎很重要。
