skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


  • NSF Public Access
  • Search Results
  • Looking beyond the television: Variability in information seeking patterns and mitigation behaviors during Hurricane Ian
Title: Looking beyond the television: Variability in information seeking patterns and mitigation behaviors during Hurricane Ian
Recent research in crisis and risk communication has examined information seeking preferences across varying audiences in the time leading up to natural disasters. Such an understanding is critical for targeting risk information messages such that they will have the maximum intended impact on those seeking to take protective actions. Until recently, these studies have largely ignored the relative importance of mediated sources alongside community groups and other grassroots organizations. To that end, the current study surveyed 1030 Florida residents in the aftermath of 2022’s Hurricane Ian in the United States. In addition to replicating past findings concerning media preferences across the demographic spectrum, the current study offers evidence that marginalized and at-risk communities may be especially reliant on community resources for information about protective actions concerning an environmental hazard. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for crisis communication researchers and emergency managers alike.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2303097
PAR ID:
10522589
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Elsevier LTD
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Progress in Disaster Science
Volume:
23
Issue:
C
ISSN:
2590-0617
Page Range / eLocation ID:
100336
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, Health Security)
    null (Ed.)
    The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created substantial challenges for public health officials who must communicate pandemic-related risks and recommendations to the public. Their efforts have been further hampered by the politicization of the pandemic, including media outlets that question the seriousness and necessity of protective actions. The availability of highly politicized news from online platforms has led to concerns about the notion of ‘‘echo chambers,’’ whereby users are exposed only to information that conforms to and reinforces their existing beliefs. Using a sample of 5,000 US residents, we explored their information-seeking tendencies, reliance on conservative and liberal online media, risk perceptions, and mitigation behaviors. The results of our study suggest that risk perceptions may vary across preferences for conservative or liberal bias; however, our results do not support differences in the mitigation behavior across patterns of media use. Further, our findings do not support the notion of echo chambers, but rather suggest that people with lower information-seeking behavior may be more strongly influenced by politicized COVID-19 news. Risk estimates converge at higher levels of information seeking, suggesting that high information seekers consume news from sources across the political spectrum. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for the study of online echo chambers and their practical implications for public health officials and emergency managers. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; (, Computers in human behavior)
    null (Ed.)
    During COVID-19, social media has played an important role for public health agencies and government stakeholders (i.e. actors) to disseminate information regarding situations, risks, and personal protective action inhibiting disease spread. However, there have been notable insufficient, incongruent, and inconsistent communications regarding the pandemic and its risks, which was especially salient at the early stages of the outbreak. Sufficiency, congruence and consistency in health risk communication have important implications for effective health safety instruction as well as critical content interpretability and recall. It also impacts individual- and community-level responses to information. This research employs text mining techniques and dynamic network analysis to investigate the actors’ risk and crisis communication on Twitter regarding message types, communication sufficiency, timeliness, congruence, consistency and coordination. We studied 13,598 pandemic-relevant tweets posted over January to April from 67 federal and state-level agencies and stakeholders in the U.S. The study annotates 16 categories of message types, analyzes their appearances and evolutions. The research then identifies inconsistencies and incongruencies on four critical topics and examines spatial disparities, timeliness, and sufficiency across actors and message types in communicating COVID-19. The network analysis also reveals increased communication coordination over time. The findings provide unprecedented insight of Twitter COVID-19 information dissemination which may help to inform public health agencies and governmental stakeholders future risk and crisis communication strategies related to global hazards in digital environments. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; (, Journal of Emergency Management)
    In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas and the southeast United States, resulting in widespread damage and loss of life. Drawing from previous crisis communication research on both natural and man-made disasters, this study examines information seeking and medium preferences, attention allocation, and sex differences in these outcomes. Extant literature has found differences between men and women in terms of the volume and types of information wanted during a crisis event, as well as preferences for different media in times of crisis. This literature has yet to examine the degree to which attention allocation may be related to these outcomes. To address these issues in a naturalistic context, a large-scale survey was targeted at residents of states impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Results are consistent with previous research indicating that females engaged in more overall information seeking and sought more information seeking related to tangible goals. Females found interactive media (Internet and social media) to be more useful than males. Evidence was not detected concerning sex differences in the way people found out about the storm and sex differences in attention allocation detected. Results suggested small effects for perceived usefulness of television and Internet on attention allocation for both men and women. Implications for emergency management personnel and public officials are discussed. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, Journal of emergency management)
    A lengthy history of research in the crisis communication literature has documented sex differences in information needs and responses. Response Styles Theory is introduced as a potential explanatory mechanism for these findings, which may be attributable to differences in rumination tendency. A representative survey of over 5000 U.S. residents explored information seeking and risk perceptions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Results support the argument that previously observed sex differences may be accounted for by rumination, and that rumination is predictive of specific (but not general) risk estimation. Rumination may also drive information seeking and subsequent depressive symptoms, especially among men. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for risk and crisis communicators, and our consideration of gender norms and their impact on risk message processing. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; (, Journal of emergency management)
    Waugh, William (Ed.)
    A lengthy history of research in the crisis communication literature has documented sex differences in information needs and responses. Response Styles Theory is introduced as a potential explanatory mechanism for these findings, which may be attributable to differences in rumination tendency. A representative survey of over 5000 US residents explored information seeking and risk perceptions regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Results support the argument that previously observed sex differences may be accounted for rumination, and rumination is predictive of specific (but not general) risk estimation. Rumination may also drive information seeking and subsequent depressive symptoms, especially among men. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for risk and crisis communicators, and our consideration of gender norms and their impact on risk message processing 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email