Social Media in Earthquake-Related Communication: Shake Networks

Francesca Comunello
LUMSA University, Italy

Simone Mulargia
Sapienza University, Italy


Product Details
Format:
Hardback
ISBN:
9781787147928
Published:
Publisher:
Emerald Publishing Limited
Dimensions:
208 pages - 152 x 229mm
List price £71.99 List price €87.99 List price $110.99
Categories:
This book presents a comprehensive framework for disaster communication, with a main focus on earthquake-related communication, building on a previously fragmented, single-case study approach to analysing the role of social media during natural disasters. 

The authors consider both traditional communication patterns and a networked model. Following traditional command-and-control disaster management paradigms, disaster communication has historically been framed as a linear process, in which experts or authorities give instructions to a passive audience. In recent years growing attention has been devoted to bottom-up disaster communication processes, and scholars have begun to focus on activities performed by citizens through digital media. These activities include eyewitness information sharing, collective intelligence processes, and digital volunteering. 

Each chapter identifies and addresses four different scenarios: top-down information sharing, citizen information gathering, institutional communication gathering, and bottom-up information sharing.

Introduction
Chapter 1. Top-down Information Dissemination During Natural Disasters;
Chapter 2. Citizens as Audiences for Top-Down Information;
Chapter 3. The 'Networked Model': From Bottom-Up Information Sharing to Digital Volunteers;
Chapter 4. The 'Networked Model': How Institutions Gather 'Bottom-Up' Information from Social Media;
Conclusion
Afterword by Emanuele Casarotti

Francesca Comunello is an Associate Professor of Internet Studies in the Department of Humanities, Lumsa University, Italy. Her work is published in journals such as Games and Culture, Media Culture and Society, The Sociological Review, and Annals of Geophysics.
Simone Mulargia is an Assistant Professor of Internet Studies in the Department of Communication and Social Research (CORIS), Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. His work is published in journals such as Games and Culture, Media Culture and Society, and The Sociological Review.

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