Emergency information diffusion on online social media during storm Cindy in U.S.

Social media plays a critical role in propagating emergency information during disasters. Governmental agencies have opened social media accounts for emergency communication channels. To understand the underlying mechanism of user behaviors and engagement, this study employs social network analysis to investigate information network and diffusion across news, weather agencies, governmental agencies, organizations and the public during the 2017 Storm Cindy in the U.S. This study identified certain types of Twitter users (news and weather agencies) were dominant as information sources and information diffusers (the public and organizations). However, the information flow in the network was controlled by numerous types of users including news, agency, weather agencies and the public. The results highlighted the importance of understanding the unique characteristics of social media and networks for better emergency communication system.