Keri K. Stephens, Jing Li, Brett W. Robertson, William R. Smith, & Dhiraj Murthy. (2018). Citizens Communicating Health Information: Urging Others in their Community to Seek Help During a Flood. In Kees Boersma, & Brian Tomaszeski (Eds.), ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings – 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 893–902). Rochester, NY (USA): Rochester Institute of Technology.
Abstract: When wide-scale flooding occurs in a community not accustomed to floods, health concerns emerge. While official organizations tasked with communicating emerging health information exist, the proliferation of social media makes it possible for average citizens to participate in this conversation. This study used a combination of semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation techniques to explore how citizens used private social media sites to share health information. We found two main categories of health concerns: existing medical conditions and water-created. We further identified six themes that describe the common approaches average citizens used to share health information: Narrating a personal experience, presenting it as a Public Service Announcement, downplaying the contribution, bringing a credible source into the conversation, including external links and sources, and using humor. Together, these findings suggest that citizens need health information during a flood disaster, and when they do not have it available from official sources, they use their private social media to tap into a shared community identity and carefully help one another.
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