Sense-Giving Strategies of Media Organisations in Social Media Disaster Communication: Findings from Hurricane Harvey

Abstract

Media organisations are essential communication stakeholders in social media disaster communication during extreme events. They perform gatekeeper and amplification roles which are crucial for collective sense-making processes. In that capacity, media organisations distribute information through social media, use it as a source of information, and share such information across different channels. Yet, little is known about the role of media organisations on social media as supposed sense-givers to effectively support the creation of mutual sense. This study investigates the communication strategies of media organisations in extreme events. To that matter, a Twitter dataset consisting of 9,414,463 postings was collected during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. We employed social network analysis and content analysis methods to identify media communication approaches. Three different sense-giving strategies were identified: retweeting local in-house outlets; bound amplification of messages of individual associated journalists; and open message amplification