Research indicates that during recent major hurricanes, crucial public safety messages were often overshadowed by less significant social content, like tweets about pets, sharing feel-good stories, or political disagreements. This distraction poses a challenge for authorities seeking to assess needs and communicate with those affected by disasters.
When natural disasters happen, social media platforms such as Facebook and X (previously Twitter) have the potential to serve as effective communication tools. However, emergency responders and government representatives frequently find it difficult to be heard over the noise of irrelevant chatter.
Recent research from the Stevens Institute of Technology reveals that during four significant hurricanes, critical public safety announcements were drowned out by trivial interactions online. This was illustrated by people tweeting about their pets, sharing interesting human-interest stories, or engaging in political debates. Dr. Jose Ramirez-Marquez from the Stevens School of Systems and Enterprises notes this poses a significant obstacle for officials trying to convey vital information to those in need during disasters.
He likens the situation to attending a loud party where political arguments make it challenging to speak up, saying, “It’s like being at a crowded party — if everyone’s arguing loudly about politics, it’s hard to make yourself heard over the noise.”
Together with Stevens PhD candidate Yefang Liang, Dr. Ramirez-Marquez scrutinized tweets from X during four recent hurricanes — Harvey, Imelda, Laura, and Florence — to pinpoint the topics that gained the most engagement before, during, and after these events. Their article, published this week in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, indicates that many topics garnering widespread online interest had no connection to safety or rescue efforts.
For instance, during Hurricane Harvey, 24 out of the 50 most engaged topics revolved around dogs affected by floods, while only seven pertained to public safety. Dr. Ramirez-Marquez noted, “That’s obviously a problem if you’re a public official trying to ensure people know how to keep themselves safe during a storm.”
Similar trends were noticed in the other hurricanes as well. In Hurricane Florence, more than half of the topics drawing significant engagement were centered on animals or political disputes, with only 19 out of the top 50 relating to rescue or safety messaging. Moreover, during Hurricane Imelda, discussions about climate change comprised nearly 25% of the high-engagement topics, overshadowing vital safety messages.
“This really is zero-sum: if conversations about animals or politics are taking up all the oxygen, it’s that much harder for other, potentially more important messages to break through,” warns Dr. Ramirez-Marquez.
The researchers suggest several strategies for officials to enhance the reach of safety messages. They found that descriptive messaging regarding storms tends to engage audiences more effectively than straightforward safety notifications. Thus, incorporating safety alerts into more descriptive posts could improve message visibility. Dr. Ramirez-Marquez also emphasizes the importance of officials remaining focused during emergencies, avoiding involvement in political discussions that might detract from critical safety messaging.
However, the reality is that leveraging social media for safety and recovery efforts in disaster scenarios will remain a challenge due to users’ preference for engaging with non-safety related content. To address this issue, social networks might need to play an active role. For instance, they could amplify official disaster-related messages to users in affected areas while allowing users outside those regions to engage in unrelated discussions.
The study also sheds light on the vulnerability of online communities. Although the current focus is on harmless social interactions, Dr. Ramirez-Marquez points out that malicious actors can disrupt conversations by spreading misleading information. “As we’ve observed recently with misinformation during disasters in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, social networks remain highly vulnerable to misinformation,” emphasizes Dr. Ramirez-Marquez.
To tackle this issue, social networks could develop methods that help users identify trustworthy information sources and streamline the filtering of misleading content during disasters. “The key here is that the networks themselves will need to take the lead on rebuilding trust online,” concludes Dr. Ramirez-Marquez. “This isn’t a problem that government officials can solve on their own.”
