The Study of Mobile Public Warning Messages: A Research Review and Agenda

Citizens’ adaptive or avoiding behavioral response to an emergency message on their mobile phone

“…The effect of warning systems like NL-Alert on the public at-risk is yet unclear (Sillem 2010;Bean et al 2015). Neither do we have an existing theoretical model to help understand the motivation inducing or resilience strengthening capacities of warning messages with these new tools.…”

“…Bean et al (2015) reported a study about people's interpretation of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) and Twitter-length messages ('tweets') in a virtual situation (no actual emergency). With four (N = 31) focus groups and 31 think-out-loud interviews, participants' understanding of, belief in and personalization of WEAs and tweets were assessed.…”

“…Getting the attention of people who are at risk, to enable them to take appropriate protective or mitigating actions are the primary aims of emergency warnings (Mileti and Sorensen 1990). However, the technological developments and its implementation in the form of tools like NL-Alert has outpaced studies on their effectiveness and their limitations (National Research Council 2011, 2013aBean et al 2015). To date, authorities don't know whether citizens are motivated by the messages, or whether their resilience benefits from it.…”

“…The current paper describes a study into the effectiveness of the Dutch NL-Alert system as a first attempt to fill the gaps that were identified by Bean et al (2015).…”

“…Warning effectiveness; nl-alert; perceived threat; efficacy beliefs; survey (Bean et al 2015) to notify receivers of imminent hazards. The current paper describes a study into the effectiveness of the Dutch NL-Alert system as a first attempt to fill the gaps that were identified by Bean et al (2015).…”