Social Media Use in Disaster Response: Empowering Communities Resilience

Social media metadata is employed to investigate the use of two social media platforms, Facebook and X, during the 2021 flood in Belgium, both in the immediate aftermath of the crisis and in the short-term. First, Facebook data is employed to analyze the activities of Facebook community groups established post-crisis over a six-month period. Then, the tweets related to the 2021 flood in Belgium are analyzed. The analytical framework employs (1) a social media data-driven quantitative and qualitative text analysis using topic modeling and sentiment analysis. The findings highlight the different roles played by the two social media platforms. Facebook served as an effective platform to mobilize and organize local communities for immediate and practical support, while Twitter served as a platform for broader global engagement and advocacy. The convergence of results from diverse data sources provides comprehensive insights into the effectiveness and challenges of leveraging social media for community resilience in the aftermath of disaster events.

本研究依托社交媒体元数据，针对2021年比利时洪灾期间，脸书（Facebook）与X两大社交媒体平台在灾害发生后即刻及短期阶段的使用情况开展调研。首先，本研究利用脸书平台数据，对灾害发生后六个月内新建的脸书社区群组的相关活动进行分析；随后，针对与2021年比利时洪灾相关的X平台推文展开分析。本研究的分析框架采用以社交媒体数据为驱动的定量与定性文本分析方法，具体涵盖主题建模（topic modeling）与情感分析（sentiment analysis）。研究结果凸显了两大社交媒体平台的差异化角色：脸书可有效动员并组织本地社区开展即时务实的互助支援，而X平台（原推特）则作为面向全球的广泛互动与倡议发声平台。多源数据研究结果的整合，为灾害事件后借助社交媒体提升社区韧性的有效性与面临的挑战提供了全面洞察。