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Purpose -A key concept within the wider practice of crisis informatics is situational awareness, which refers to the way that social media can be used to provide local, situation-specific information. This information may be used for disaster response communication and resilience building. The purpose of this study is to argue that, in this context, situational awareness relies on an overly literal interpretation of information sent via the micro-blogging service Twitter. Design/methodology/approach -The paper reviews relevant literature, including work that seeks to establish social media as a key tool in terms of crisis informatics. It discusses relevant theoretical debates and uses recent examples to interrogate these concepts. Findings -The paper identifies several issues that complicate the interpretation and application of information from Twitter during crises. Not only can misinformation circulate during disaster events, the relationship between complex meaning-making processes, taking place both online and offline, is not yet well-understood. Locating digital data in physical time and space can better illuminate the dynamics of communication on Twitter. Research limitations/implications -This is a theoretical discussion paper. It requires empirical work to question and to develop its theoretical findings. Practical implications -The paper discusses implications for designing crisis informatics tools. It suggests that the cross-referencing of data may assist in the verification and interpretation of tweet content in regards to situational awareness. Originality/value -This paper advances an important theoretical discussion with practical implications in an emergent field in crisis communication. It highlights the importance of focusing on temporal and spatial parameters for better evaluating situational awareness.

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In this article, I will attempt to engage critically with the concept of network time, which scholars have used to describe emergent, super-fast temporal experiences associated with digital media environments. I argue that critical reflection is necessary because, while network time has received significant attention as a time theory within the social sciences, there remains some uncertainty around its physical and phenomenological origins. I discuss some attempts to observe and ‘measure’ network time empirically, which I think raise a couple of important questions about its conceptual and material status. Through this discussion, I develop a reductionist model of time as interactive system assemblage and explain how the variable experiences of network time can be understood as a function of perspective. I then apply the principles of this model to a description of temporality on Twitter.