The Case for Readability of Crisis Communications in Social Media

Temnikova, Irina; Vieweg, Sarah; Castillo, Carlos

doi:10.1145/2740908.2741718

Cited by 33 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Clearly spell out all words, including the source of the message and timing (i.e., time zones) (Cao, Boruff and McNeill 2016;Bean et al 2016;Bennett 2015;Temnikova, Vieweg and Castillo 2015; Department of Justice 2012).…”

Section: Guidance On Short Message Alerting For Those Under Imminent mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since research has shown that certain conventions can inhibit message clarity (Temnikova, Vieweg and Castillo 2015), guidance is provided here to avoid user-mentions in alert messages targeted to those under imminent threat. Additionally, message providers should place hashtags at the end of the message, only, and limit use of hashtags to two or less (per alert message).…”

Section: Guidance On Short Message Alerting For Those Under Imminent mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Alerting under imminent threat: guidance on alerts issued by outdoor siren and short message alerting systems

Kuligowski¹,

Kimball²

2018

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)'s Technical Investigation of the 2011 Joplin, MO tornado identified that no widely accepted standards exist for emergency communications in tornado events and more specifically, policies involving the use of communication systems to alert the public in advance of tornadoes. This publication provides evidence-based guidance for communities on the creation and provision of public alerts, including both alerts provided by outdoor siren (warning) systems and "short messages" sent by social media or other short message service (SMS) platforms. It is the hope that this guidance can eventually be used as input for standardization, through codes and standards, of the procedures and practices for outdoor siren systems and short message alerts used by communities across the United States. Standardization of emergency communication policies and procedures could occur at multiple levels, including among multiple jurisdictions, state-wide, regionally, or even nationally.This document begins with a brief background on alerting systems, focusing specifically on outdoor siren systems and short message alerts. The next section presents the methods used for the development of evidence-based guidance on public alerts, including methods for review of literature on public response to public alerting systems, the development of preliminary guidance based on these reviews, and the finalization of the guidance presented here in this report. Then, guidance for communities on the creation and provision of public alerts for those under imminent threat is presented. This document ends with a discussion on unanswered questions, providing opportunities for further research into various areas of public alerting.

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Section: Guidance On Short Message Alerting For Those Under Imminent mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Guidance On Short Message Alerting For Those Under Imminent mentioning

confidence: 99%

Alerting under imminent threat: guidance on alerts issued by outdoor siren and short message alerting systems

Kuligowski¹,

Kimball²

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Additionally, the short message character limits often require message providers to shorten or abbreviate words or phrases in ways that are difficult to understand. Research has shown that participants are often unfamiliar with the meaning of a variety of abbreviations and acronyms (Temnikova, Vieweg, and Castillo 2015). Acronyms like "US DHS" to refer to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or "MDT" to refer to Mountain Daylight Time were unfamiliar to study participants, making the short messages difficult to understand (Bean et al 2016).…”

Section: Comprehension (Pre-decision Step 3 Of the Padm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Difficulties with the readability of short messages was also identified as an issue in some studies (Temnikova, Vieweg, and Castillo 2015). While acronyms are likely used to shorten certain words in WEAs and tweets, potentially leaving room within the character limits for additional information, they also made short messages more difficult to read.…”

Section: Comprehension (Pre-decision Step 3 Of the Padm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research provides evidence that short messages containing certain terminology (where expanded explanations of the terms could not be provided) were confusing to the readers (Temnikova, Vieweg, and Castillo 2015). Additionally, messages were found to be wrought with ambiguous statements that invoked additional questions from the study participants (Sutton and Woods 2016), left room for potentially incorrect interpretations of the hazard of its consequences (Bean et al 2016), and lacked specificity on important topics, such as locations of risk areas, potential evacuation routes, and other places of safety .…”

Section: Comprehension (Pre-decision Step 3 Of the Padm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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A review of public response to short message alerts under imminent threat

Kuligowski¹,

Doermann²

2018

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)'s Technical Investigation of the 2011 Joplin, MO tornado identified that no widely accepted standards exist for emergency communications in tornado events and more specifically, policies involving the use of communication systems to alert the public in advance of tornadoes.This study is designed to develop evidence-based guidance for communities on the creation and provision of public alerts, including both alerts provided by outdoor siren (warning) systems and "short messages" sent by social media or other short message service (SMS) platforms. It is the hope that this guidance can eventually be used as input for standardization, through codes and standards, of the procedures and practices for outdoor siren systems and short message alerts used by communities across the United States. Standardization of emergency communication policies and procedures could occur at multiple levels, including among multiple jurisdictions, state-wide, regionally, or even nationally.This document focuses on short message alerts, specifically presenting a review of platforms, usage and public response. First, an overview is provided on the current status of short message alerts in the United States, i.e., the current short message technology available and the ways in which this technology is used in communities across the United States. Second, a review of the literature is presented on the ways in which people respond to short message alerts and the current limitations of these systems in light of these findings. This document concludes with a discussion on the key findings and recommendations from the literature on the ways in which to improve current short message alerts, based on the methods by which people receive and process these types of alerts. Following this work, a document will be developed to provide the overall evidence-based guidance for communities on the creation and provision of public alerts.

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Readability of Posts and User Engagement in Online Communities of Government Executive Bodies

Platonov

Svetlov

2021

Social Computing and Social Media: Experience Design and Social Network Analysis

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The Case for Readability of Crisis Communications in Social Media

Cited by 33 publications

References 20 publications

Alerting under imminent threat: guidance on alerts issued by outdoor siren and short message alerting systems

Alerting under imminent threat: guidance on alerts issued by outdoor siren and short message alerting systems

A review of public response to short message alerts under imminent threat

Readability of Posts and User Engagement in Online Communities of Government Executive Bodies

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