Earthquake Country: A Qualitative Analysis of Risk Communication via Facebook

ABSTRACT

Social media play an increasingly important role in effective risk communication for disasters like earthquakes. This study investigates a Facebook discussion group for disaster risk communication in Alaska, comparing patterns of use during periods of low magnitude activity and during the January 2018 M7.9 Gulf of Alaska earthquake. Findings illuminate the functions the group serves for different users, with public members and staff using it for both informational and social/emotional reasons, such as seeking/providing reassurance, building trust, and expressing “earthquake country” attitudes rooted in regional identity. Moreover, key functions vary throughout the earthquake cycle, with a focus on relationship-building and two-way communication during the interevent period and on controlling quality and accessibility following major events. These results contribute to theory on disaster social media and provide practical insights for organizations using social media for risk communication, including accounting for unique audience motivations and the role of place and regional identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Risk communication
• earthquake hazards
• disaster social media

Acknowledgments

I thank Dr. Katherine McComas, Dr. Lee Humphreys, and Dr. Dominic Balog-Way for their helpful input on the manuscript as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 “Risk communication” is deliberately defined broadly in this paper and includes risks and risk issues affecting human health and the environment (see Löfstedt & 6, 2008 for further discussion). The author would like to thank an anonymous reviewer who prompted this comment.

2 See Charmaz (2002) and Lofland et al. (1995) for additional details on the analysis approach taken here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship under grant number DGE-1650441.