What and Where Do I Learn About the Baby Formula Shortage Crisis? Exploring Crisis Communication Patterns, Influencers, and Information Resources

ABSTRACT

The baby formula shortage escalated into a national public health crisis, spurring a public discussion on social media. As media dependency theory suggests, people likely turn to information resources they prefer. This study examined 22,055 X posts related to the baby formula shortage. By calculating 17,484 X accounts’ betweenness centrality, this article identified 20 X influencers who controlled the information flow of the baby formula shortage crisis. Crisis communication patterns were unpacked by analyzing the content of popular links shared in the network and generated by the top influencers. Most influencers are mass media, media professionals, and politicians. The frequently shared content was primarily published in mass media outlets like Fox News and Vox. Active influencers focused on the crisis information of reshelving baby formula products, responses to the shortage, and political critiques. This study extends the current literature by tracking the crisis information resources and comparing and analyzing crisis information shared in the whole network and shared by crisis influencers. It offers theoretical and practical implications for managing crises and correcting misinformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisis communication
• online information resource
• social media influencer
• social network analysis
• media dependency theory

Disclosure Statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xianlin Jin

Xianlin Jin, Ph.D. (2021-University of Kentucky) is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication, the University of Toledo. Xianlin integrates quantitative, big data, and qualitative methods to study risk information seeking, health communication, and human-machine communication. Xianlin is also a member of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Young Scientists and Communication & Social Robotics Labs.

Patric R. Spence

Patric R. Spence, Ph.D. is a professor at the Nicholson School of Communication and Media, University of Central Florida.

Kenneth Lachlan

Kenneth Lachlan, Ph.D. is a professor and Department Head in the Department of Communication, University of Connecticut. His research interests include the functions and effects of social media during crises and disasters, community-level risk mitigation interventions, and the role of cognitive processing styles in responding to emergency messages.