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CASE STUDY QUEENSLAND FLOODS (2010–2011) AND “TWEETING” France Cheong, Christopher Cheong RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Introduction Australia experienced its worst flooding disaster in 2010 and 2011 with a series of floods occurring in several states between March 2010 and February 2011. Worst of all were the Queensland floods which caused three-quarters of the state to be declared a disaster zone (Brisbane Times, 2011). In times of mass emergencies, a phenomenon known as collective behavior becomes apparent (Dynes and Quarantelli, 1968). It consists of socio-behaviors that include intensified information search and information contagion (Starbird et al., 2010). In these situations, people want to know where exactly their families and friends are, as not being able to reach them or knowing they might not be able to contact you, can be very frightening moments during such situations. Information is critical during emergencies as the availability of immediate information can save lives. People share information about approaching threats, where to evacuate, where to go for help, etc. Not only do they want to know about the destruction that has occurred, but they are also eager to help those affected by giving a helping hand and raise funds from donations. Thus, there is a need to keep abreast of the latest developments; however, this is difficult since information produced under crisis situations is usually scattered and of varying quality. Social media is media for social interaction enabled by communication technologies such as the web and
smartphones. The distributed, decentralized, and real-time nature of these interactions provide the necessary breadth and immediacy of information required in times of emergencies (Palen and Vieweg, 2008). Since social media offer a uniquely rapid and powerful way to disseminate information, accurate and inaccurate, good and bad information spread equally alike as incorrect information can spread like wild fire. However, there is indication that social networks tend to favor valid information over rumors (Castillo et al., 2011). Twitter is a microblogging service, a form of lightweight chat allowing users to post and exchange short 140character-long messages known as tweets. Although most tweets are conversation and chatter, they are also used to share relevant information and report news (Castillo et al., 2011). Twitter is becoming a valuable tool in disaster and emergency situations as there is increasing evidence that it is not just a social network, it is also a news service (Yates and Paquette, 2011). In emergency situations, tweets provide either first-person observations or bring relevant knowledge from external sources (Vieweg, 2010). Information from official and reputable sources is regarded as valuable and hence is actively sought and propagated. Other users then elaborate and synthesize this pool of information to produce derived interpretations. We studied the community of Twitter users disseminating information during the crisis caused by the Queensla
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