Explaining the Transmission of Rumor and Information on Social Media in Disasters

Abstract

Many individuals now use social media to communicate in disasters. While there is a high demand for verified information during disasters, such events also provide a fertile field for rumor-mongering. To date, researchers have examined rumor transmission in disasters, but not information transmission. While research on rumor transmission can give some insights into how to control rumors, a key way to stop rumors is to facilitate the spread of verified information. Thus, it is necessary to investigate rumor and information transmission in an integrated fashion. As we are not aware of any study that has provided such an account in a disaster context, we draw on rumor theory and information sharing theory to develop an integrative model of message transmission (both rumor and information) on social media during disasters. We empirically test our model using Twitter data in a disaster, and discuss the similarities and differences between rumor and information transmission. We believe that our model can contribute to research on social media use in disasters, as well as the practice of disaster management.