Louis Ngamassi, Thiagarajan Ramakrishnan, & Shahedur Rahman. (2016). Examining the Role of Social Media in Disaster Management from an Attribution Theory Perspective. In A. Tapia, P. Antunes, V.A. Bañuls, K. Moore, & J. Porto (Eds.), ISCRAM 2016 Conference Proceedings ? 13th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Abstract: This paper is related to the use of social media for disaster management by humanitarian organizations. The past decade has seen a significant increase in the use of social media to manage humanitarian disasters. It seems, however, that it has still not been used to its full potential. In this paper, we examine the use of social media in disaster management through the lens of Attribution Theory. Attribution Theory posits that people look for the causes of events, especially unexpected and negative events. The two major characteristics of disasters are that they are unexpected and have negative outcomes/impacts. Thus, Attribution Theory may be a good fit for explaining social media adoption patterns by emergency managers. We propose a model, based on Attribution Theory, which is designed to understand the use of social media during the mitigation and preparedness phases of disaster management. We also discuss the theoretical contributions and some practical implications. This study is still in its nascent stage and is research in progress.
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Louis Ngamassi, Thiagarajan Ramakrishnan, & Shahedur Rahman. (2020). Investigating the Use of Social Media by Underserved Communities for Disaster Management. In Amanda Hughes, Fiona McNeill, & Christopher W. Zobel (Eds.), ISCRAM 2020 Conference Proceedings – 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 490–496). Blacksburg, VA (USA): Virginia Tech.
Abstract: Social media is emerging as a communication tool for successfully managing disasters. However, studies have shown that not all individuals are equally predisposed towards effectively using social media for disaster management. There still exists a big digital divide when it comes to using social media for disaster management. Drawing on situational theory of problem solving, we develop a conceptual model that examines the motivating factors for the underserved communities to use social media for disaster management. We further develop and cross-validate a questionnaire instrument to acilitate empirical research. We thus offer an empirical context for motivating individuals from underserved communities to use social media effectively during disasters.
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