Abstract
Nuanced public responses to droughts and other chronic environmental crises reflect today’s increasingly complex communication ecosystem. At once global and infinitely customizable, this vast array of media and information channels requires existing theory to address the implications of interactions among social media, “traditional” mass media outlets, and information-seeking tools such as search engines. How do these channels intervene in public conversation? What might the agenda-setting perspective have to say? Data collected during peak years of the California drought, 2013–2015, indicate that California residents responded to worsening drought conditions Twitter first, which was the only media behavior directly stimulated by environmental stressors. Google searches stimulated newspaper coverage and Twitter activity, revealing the centrality of search behaviors in this environmental crisis. The findings suggest significant changes to the communication landscape as individual and collective users become increasingly dependent on non-mainstream media channels for information in chronic crisis situations.
Highlights
Natural crisis situations generate an enormous amount of public interest across social demographics
In the region of California most affected by the drought, public conversation was initiated by traditional media, social media (Twitter status updates), or the broader information-seeking strategy of using a search engine (Google)
While there were several potentially relevant lags in the soil moisture indicator (SSI) data, only the threeweek lag had a significant relationship with the Twitter data series, indicating that Twitter activity reacted to changes in hydrological conditions after a delay of just under a month
Summary
Natural crisis situations generate an enormous amount of public interest across social demographics. Everyday citizens who are aware of or affected by the situation exhibit intensified information-seeking behaviors [1]. Commercial media channels implement crisis coverage with an eye toward increasing audience reach and engagement [2]. Policy makers deploy communication and mobilization campaigns in hopes of solving the crisis before the accompanying deluge of public discontent. Rapid segmentation of audiences according to communication objectives and crisis proximity entails rapid proliferation of communication agendas [3]. Given the speed of online information production and transmission—heightened even more by the chaos surrounding generation and circulation of crisis-related information —understanding where information starts and where it goes is more complex than ever.
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