1 INTRODUCTION
Australia experienced its worst flooding disasters in 2010 and 2011 with a series of floods occurring
in several states between March 2010 and February 2011. These floods are considered the worst
flood events in the history of the various states affected. First, there were the Queensland floods of
March 2010 causing major flooding in south western and central Queensland (The Courier-Mail,
2010), followed by the Victorian floods of September 2010 damaging major regional towns such as
Ballarat and Benalla (ABC News, 2010). Next, there was the flooding of the River Gascoyne in
Western Australia in December 2010 damaging homes in Carnavon (Australian Bureau of
Meteorology, 2010), the December 2010-January 2011 floods of Queensland causing three-quarters of
the state to be declared a disaster zone (Brisbane Times, 2011), and ending with the New South Wales
of January 2011 (Nine News) and the Victorian floods of February 2011 (The Age, 2011).
In times of mass emergencies, a phenomenon known as collective behaviour becomes apparent
(Dynes & Quarantelli, 1968). It consists of socio-behaviours that include intensified information
search and information contagion (Starbird, Palen, Hughes, & Vieweg, 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 these
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 used for social interaction. They are enabled by communication technologies
such as the web and smartphones and they turn communication into an interactive dialogue
(Wikipedia, 2011). Interactions on social media being highly distributed, decentralised and occurring
in real time, they provide the necessary breadth and immediacy of information required in times of
emergencies (Palen & Vieweg, 2008). Since social media offer a uniquely rapid and powerful way to
disseminate information, accurate and inaccurate, good and bad spread equally alike as incorrect
information can spread like wild fire. However, there is indication that social networks tend to favour
valid information over rumours (Castillo, Mendoza, & Poblete, 2011).
Twitter and Facebook are good examples of social media useful in crisis situations since they provide
vital information as they are happening. Twitter is a micro-blogging service, a form of lightweight
chat allowing users to post and exchange short 140-character-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 & 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.
During the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, online users voluntarily created a Twitter page
(http://www.twitter.com/Mumbai) to update and share situational information on the attacks (Oh,
Agrawal, & Rao, 2010). A study found that 52.6% of tweeted H1NI-related material in 2009 to be
related to news and information on swine flu (Chew, Eysenbach, & Sampson, 2010). Twitter was used
to provide time-critical information about tsunami alerts, missing and deceased people, availability of
services, road conditions among other topics related to the catastrophe hours after the Chile
earthquake of Santiago in 2010 (Mendoza, Poblete, & Castillo, 2010). During the Haiti earthquake,
Twitter was used to create awareness about the disaster and mobilize people to help (Yates &
Paquette, 2011).
2
PACIS 2011 Proceedings, Art. 46 [2011]
http://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2011/46
