Microblogging for Crisis

Communication: Examination
of Twitter Use in Response to a
Violent Crisis

Thomas Heverin & Lisl Zach

Drexel University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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 Overview

• Purpose
• Description of Event
• Data collection & Methods
• Results
• Conclusion

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 Purpose
• What types of information are transmitted over Twitter
during violent crises?

• Who is creating and sending the information?

• How can official response agencies use the information

transmitted on Twitter during violent crises?

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November 29, 2009

Sgt. Mark Renninger, Ronald

Owens,Tina Griswold, and Greg
Richards

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 “Four police officers shot dead in
coffee-shop ambush near Tacoma”

Tacoma News Tribune, McClatchy

Newspapers, November 29, 2009
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 Data Collection & Methodology

• Observations of Twitter usage

• Collected 6013 tweets (#washooting) Nov
29-Dec 1 via Twitter Search API
• Qualitatively coded data
– types of authors
– contents of messages
– trends of contents of messages

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 Results

• Author types and characteristics

• Message types
• Trends of message types
• Observed behaviors

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 Author Types

• 1668 unique authors of 6013 tweets

• Citizens:
– 91.5% of authors, contributed to 82.3% of the
tweets
• Local/national media:
– 4.5% of authors, 8.9% of the tweets
• Local government:
– < 1% of authors, < 1% of tweets

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 Author Types

• 1668 unique authors

• Citizens:
– 91.5% of authors, contributed to 82.3% of the
tweets
• Local/national media:
– 4.5% of authors, 8.9% of the tweets
• Local government:
– < 1% of authors, < 1% of tweets

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 Author Types

• 1668 unique authors

• Citizens:
– 91.5% of authors, contributed to 82.3% of the
tweets
• Local/national media:
– 4.5% of authors, 8.9% of the tweets
• Local government:
– < 1% of authors, < 1% of tweets

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 Author Types

• 1668 unique authors

• Citizens:
– 91.5% of authors, contributed to 82.3% of the
tweets
• Local/national media:
– 4.5% of authors, 8.9% of the tweets
• Local government:
– < 1% of authors, < 1% of tweets

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Citizen Geographic Distribution

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 Message Types

• Information-related (79.0%)
• Opinion-related (17.8%)
• Technology-related (3.8%)
• Emotion-related (3.7%)
• Action-related (0.9%)

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 Information Broadcasting
• Photographs of suspect
• Background information about suspect
• Previous legal & criminal history of suspect
• License plate number of suspect’s get-away car
• Twitter & Facebook profiles of suspect
• Locations of alleged sightings
• Locations of police activity & response

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 Message Types

• Information-related (79.0%)
• Opinion-related (17.8%)
• Technology-related (3.8%)
• Emotion-related (3.7%)
• Action-related (0.9%)

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 Message Types

• Information-related (79.0%)
• Opinion-related (17.8%)
• Technology-related (3.8%)
• Emotion-related (3.7%)
• Action-related (0.9%)

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 Message Types

• Information-related (79.0%)
• Opinion-related (17.8%)
• Technology-related (3.8%)
• Emotion-related (3.7%)
• Action-related (0.9%)

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 Message Types

• Information-related (79.0%)
• Opinion-related (17.8%)
• Technology-related (3.8%)
• Emotion-related (3.7%)
• Action-related (0.9%)

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 Message Types

• Information-related (79.0%)
• Opinion-related (17.8%)
• Technology-related (3.8%)
• Emotion-related (3.7%)
• Action-related (0.9%)

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Trends of Tweet content per 12 hour time period

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Trends of Tweet content per 12 hour time period

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Trends of Tweet content per 12 hour time period

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Trends of Tweet content per 12 hour time period

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Trends of Tweet content per 12 hour time period

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Trends of Tweet content per 12 hour time period

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 Behaviors Observed
• Collaboration
• Self-policing information
• Citing information sources & creating own
• Questioning information sources
• Technology instruction

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 Conclusion

• In this case….
– citizens contributed the most to the stream of
messages
– #washooting primarily used for sharing crisis-
related information
• Future work
– retweets, information extraction &
visualization, law enforcement views on using
& monitoring Twitter

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