IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014 - 55

Most sociologists of knowledge and science tend to agree
that significant advances in an
area come less from the accumulation of empirical studies,
but more from reconceptualizations of basic ideas and
definitions [1, p. 38].

nformation and communication technologies (ICTs)
a r e h av i ng a p owe r f u l
impact on people's problem-solvi ng approaches
and thoughts about practically
everything, from global climate
to personal relationships. Therefore, ICT professionals and the
broader community cannot afford
to see only those aspects of human
behavior and sociocultural processes that technology forces
them to see. This would be unethical and irresponsible, eventually
resulting in a negative impact
on the use of new technology. A
critical re-examination of habitual
paradigms is needed, particularly
when technologies enter areas that
concern human lives and health,
social order and community resilience, security and human rights.
Recently, social media began
to be introduced into the area of
disaster planning and emergency
management [2]-[4]. Within disaster studies, it is well understood
that technological tools, while
aiding some processes, may create new problems and require a
profound change of organizational
procedures and workplace culture
[5]-[7]. Inevitably, social media
are going to affect both the work of
disaster response agencies and the
population's behavior in emergency
situations. An understanding of this
process needs to be informed by
systematic and theoretically sound
studies of social media use in crisis
situations, rather than by anecdotal
evidence or references to technological characteristics of platforms
and applications [8]-[12]. This task
implies that common conceptual
grounds need to be found between

the fields of disaster studies and
social media research.
Linking disaster studies and
social media research is difficult due
to their multidisciplinary, applied,
and practice-oriented nature.
Disaster studies and social
media research have been shaped
by diverse and, sometimes, conflicting interests of different stakeholders, including local authorities
and communities, governments,
communication service providers,
and professional newsmakers. This
has resulted in varied and dynamically changing research agendas.
Theoretical roots are not always
explicit in disaster studies [13]. Disaster studies are case-focused, with
valuable knowledge scattered among
organizational reports and practical recommendations. Research on
social media use is even less systematic, with a considerable part of
it existing in a format unfriendly to
disciplinary meta-reflection, such as
blogs, comments, and so on.
Disaster studies are rooted
within disciplines that focus on
human behavior, decision-making,
and social factors. By contrast,
social media research draws upon
computational and engineering
concepts, combined with views
borrowed from market research,
public relations, and journalism.
One such view is presented in a categorization of tweets, which labels
40 percent of all tweets as "pointless babble" [14], [15]. This categorization may encourage an analyst
to dismiss a considerable amount
of user-generated content as noise.
At the same time, a social psychologist may interpret "pointless
babble" tweets as manifestations of
socially significant behavior, captured by the terms "social grooming," "peripheral social awareness,"
and "phatic conversation" [16]. In
a disaster situation, such behavior
may play an important role in providing psychological first aid and
increasing community resilience.
The mainstream discourse on
social media is fundamentally

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SPRING 2014

information-centric. Within the
information-centric perspective,
the entire universe is envisioned in
terms of communication networks
and information flows. Uncritical
adoption of this perspective may
result in ignoring the most essential aspects of human behavior in
extreme situations. It encourages
researchers to focus on more familiar and habitual activities (or, rather,
what constitutes such for advanced
users). For instance, crisis management may be viewed mainly
through an information management lens. Victims requesting help
may be categorized as "sources
of information" and their help
requests as "social media reports,"
i.e., as pieces of data that are more
conveniently analyzed in aggregated form, rather than receiving
individual responses. Following
this logic, the affected population
should be automatically ignored as
a "cause of noise." People affected
by traumatic experiences cannot
correctly evaluate risks and provide
accurate information. They tend to
exaggerate their needs, attempting to influence rescue teams to
provide help. Repetitive messages -
one of the most characteristic features of social media disaster event
discussion - may be dismissed as
unnecessary duplication of information, while they may also be
interpreted as a manifestation of
collective emotional arousal.
This article aims to demonstrate the heuristic significance of
the concept of human communication in understanding the impact of
social media on disaster planning
and management.

Human Communication
Human communication has been an
object of theoretical and empirical
analysis in such different disciplines
as rhetoric (the art of persuasion),
philosophy of language, linguistics, psychology, sociology, and
literary theory. Academic literature offers an impressive variety of
theoretically sound and insightful
|

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014