Analysis of Online News Coverage on Earthquakes Through Text Mining

Camilleri, Stephen; Agius, Matthew; Azzopardi, Joel

doi:10.3389/feart.2020.00141

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…However, it is rather difficult to focus people's attention on earthquake-related events unless not in the emotional aftermath of catastrophic events (Crescimbene et al, 2014). The time interval of interest for a given earthquake is often quite short (from a few minutes to a few days) and reaching the target audience in this time window would be extremely important for communicating earthquake risk (Camilleri et al, 2020). In normal times, people are not often exposed to earthquakes or even interested in learning about them, and thus may have misconceptions about seismic hazard and risk.…”

Section: Opening Up the Seismic Risk Communication Lifecyclementioning

confidence: 99%

A scoping review of seismic risk communication in Europe

et al. 2023

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Although earthquakes are a threat in many countries and considerable resources have been invested in safety regulations, communities at risk often lack awareness and preparedness. Risk communication is a key tool for building resilient communities, raising awareness, and increasing preparedness. Over the past 2 decades, seismic risk communication has evolved significantly. This has led to a reorientation from a predominantly “one-way”, top-down communication model to the promotion of new models in which people, their needs, and their participation in disaster risk management are central elements. The 2015–2030 Sendai Framework recommendations, recent disaster experiences and research have highlighted that new models can improve communication effectiveness. In this paper, we critically explore this transition by conducting a scoping review (n=109 publications) of seismic risk communication in Europe. We analyse the approaches, messages, tools, and channels used for seismic risk communication and how they have changed over time. The results reveal that the stated goals of seismic risk communication are, in decreasing order, to share information, raise awareness, change behaviours/beliefs, and increase preparedness. Pupils, students, and citizens are the primary recipients of communication activities. Over the years, two trends have emerged. First, “two-way”, transdisciplinary and bottom-up communication models prevailed over the “one-way” model. Second, communication aimed more at promoting proactive behaviours than just informing the public. Face-to-face, hands-on activities, and serious games are key tools to engage with the public. The results also reveal the emerging role of social media to target different audiences/social groups. Strikingly, only one-fifth of the analysed publications explicitly build on or tests risk communication theories. Future research could focus on comparing practices across countries and risks (e.g., earthquakes and floods) and on innovating communication theories and methodologies, especially by incorporating the role of information technologies and social media.

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Section: Opening Up the Seismic Risk Communication Lifecyclementioning

confidence: 99%

A scoping review of seismic risk communication in Europe

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…• practice and research • role in building the resilience of earthquake-prone communities Indeed, it is difficult to focus people's attention on earthquake-related events unless not in the emotional aftermath of catastrophic events . The time interval of interest for a given earthquake is often quite short (from a few minutes to a few days), and reaching the target audience in this time window is extremely important for communicating earthquake risk (Camilleri et al, 2020). In normal times, people are not often exposed to earthquakes or even interested in learning about them, and thus may have misconceptions about seismic hazard and risk.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A scoping review of seismic risk communication in Europe

Musacchio¹,

Saraò²,

Falsaperla³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Although earthquakes are a threat in many countries and considerable resources have been invested in safety regulations, communities at risk often lack awareness and preparedness. Risk communication is a key tool for building resilient communities, raising awareness, and increasing preparedness. Over the past two decades, risk communication has evolved significantly. This has led to a reorientation from a predominantly “one-way”, top-down communication model to the promotion of “two-way” or “three-way” models in which people, their needs, and their participation in disaster risk management and co-creation are a central element. The reasons for this shift are many. For example, recent disaster experiences and research have highlighted that one-way, passive risk communication is poorly interpreted, often misunderstood, and can even destroy public trust in emergency management authorities. In this paper, we critically explore this transition by conducting a scoping review (n=109 publications) of seismic risk communication in Europe. We analyze the approaches, messages, tools, and channels used for seismic risk communication and how they have changed between 2000 and 2022, emphasizing how public engagement in risk communication has been de facto implemented over the past 20 years. The results reveal that the stated goals of seismic risk communication are, in decreasing order, to share information, raise awareness, change behaviors/beliefs, and increase preparedness. Pupils, students, and citizens are the primary recipients of communication activities. Over the years, two trends have emerged. First, the “two-way” or “three-way” communication models became more prevalent than the “one-way” model. Second, the aims of communication became more proactive than informative. Face to face, hands-on activities, and serious games are key tools to engage with the public. The results also reveal the emerging role of social media as an information and dissemination channel in the efforts to reach audiences that are so diverse in terms of age, culture, and education. Strikingly, only one fifth of the analyzed publications explicitly builds on or tests risk communication theories. Future research must focus particularly on comparing practices across countries and risks (e.g. earthquakes and floods) and on innovating communication theories and methodologies, especially by incorporating the role of information technologies and social media.

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“…Additionally, even for a given earthquake, the window of interest is often quite short in time (from a few minutes to a few days). For these reasons, communications related to earthquake risk and science only benefit from few and short moments to be efficient and reach their audience (Camilleri et al, 2020). As a result, at an individual scale, people are not often exposed nor attentive to earthquake science messages and therefore may have inaccurate belief about what seismology can and cannot do and about when scientific information is available (Scheufele et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preventing and debunking earthquake misinformation: Insights into EMSC's practices

et al. 2022

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Misinformation spreads fast in times of crises, corroding public trust and causing further harm to already vulnerable communities. In earthquake seismology, the most common misinformation and misleading popular beliefs generally relate to earthquake prediction, earthquake genesis, and potential causal relations between climate, weather and earthquake occurrence. As a public earthquake information and dissemination center, the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) has been confronted many times with this issue over the years. In this paper we describe several types of earthquake misinformation that the EMSC had to deal with during the 2018 Mayotte earthquake crisis and the 2021 La Palma seismic swarm. We present frequent misinformation topics such as earthquake predictions seen on our communication channels. Finally, we expose how, based on desk studies and users' surveys, the EMSC has progressively improved its communication strategy and tools to fight earthquake misinformation and restore trust in science. In this paper we elaborate on the observed temporality patterns for earthquake misinformation and the implications this may have to limit the magnitude of the phenomenon. We also discuss the importance of social, psychological and cultural factors in the appearance and therefore in the fight against misinformation. Finally, we emphasize the need to constantly adapt to new platforms, new beliefs, and advances in science to stay relevant and not allow misinformation to take hold.

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Analysis of Online News Coverage on Earthquakes Through Text Mining

Cited by 6 publications

References 36 publications

A scoping review of seismic risk communication in Europe

A scoping review of seismic risk communication in Europe

A scoping review of seismic risk communication in Europe

Preventing and debunking earthquake misinformation: Insights into EMSC's practices

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