Dynamics of crisis communications in social media: Spatio-temporal and text-based comparative analyses of Twitter data from hurricanes Irma and Michael
Conference
Roy, K, Ashraf Ahmed, MD, Hasan, S et al. (2020). Dynamics of crisis communications in social media: Spatio-temporal and text-based comparative analyses of Twitter data from hurricanes Irma and Michael
. 2020-May 812-824.
Roy, K, Ashraf Ahmed, MD, Hasan, S et al. (2020). Dynamics of crisis communications in social media: Spatio-temporal and text-based comparative analyses of Twitter data from hurricanes Irma and Michael
. 2020-May 812-824.
Social media platforms play critical roles in information dissemination, communication and co-ordination during different phases of natural disasters as it is crucial to know the type of crisis information being disseminated and user concerns. Large-scale Twitter data from hurricanes Irma (Sept. 2017) and Michael (Oct. 2018) are used here to understand the topic dynamics over time by applying the Dynamic Topic Model, followed by a comparative analyses of the differences in such dynamics for these two hurricane scenarios. We performed a spatio-temporal analyses of user activities with reference to the hurricane center location and wind speed. The findings of spatiotemporal analyses show that differences in hurricane path and the affected regions influence user participation and social media activity. Besides, topic dynamics reveals that situational awareness, disruptions, relief action are among the patterns common for both hurricanes; unlike topics such as hurricane evacuation and political situation that are scenario dependent.
