Dr. Alexa Lamm recently published an article in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction titled “Integrating digital infrastructure characteristics of social media and source credibility into the technology adoption model for disaster risk reduction” in collaboration with an interdisciplinary, international team. In this study of social media use a multi-dimensional model was designed based on the technology adoption model, the digital infrastructural characteristics of social media, and source credibility with the aim of predicting the intention to use social media when a disaster strikes.
European countries were targeted and divided into six regions and then assigned to receive an online instrument using convenience sampling through social media networks. The results indicated the intention to use social media for three purposes:
1. Acquiring public information
2. Confirming journalistic reporting, and
3. Sharing information related to disasters was not influenced by hedonistic values.
The findings suggested that to increase the use of social media in relation to disaster risk reduction, robust social media infrastructural characteristics should be considered to ensure they align with the anticipated disaster conditions. To learn more, please check out the full article here.
