Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and Reddit
Abstract Online social networks (OSNs) have become a powerful tool to study collective human responses to extreme events such as earthquakes. Most previous research concentrated on a single platform and utilized users’ behaviors on a single platform to study people’s general responses. In this study...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05359-9 |
| _version_ | 1818500856780161024 |
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| author | Tao Ruan Qingkai Kong Sara K. McBride Amatullah Sethjiwala Qin Lv |
| author_facet | Tao Ruan Qingkai Kong Sara K. McBride Amatullah Sethjiwala Qin Lv |
| author_sort | Tao Ruan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Online social networks (OSNs) have become a powerful tool to study collective human responses to extreme events such as earthquakes. Most previous research concentrated on a single platform and utilized users’ behaviors on a single platform to study people’s general responses. In this study, we explore the characteristics of people’s behaviors on different OSNs and conduct a cross-platform analysis of public responses to earthquakes. Our findings support the Uses and Gratification theory that users on Reddit and Twitter are engaging with platforms that they may feel best reflect their sense of self. Using the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes as our study cases, we collected 510,579 tweets and 45,770 Reddit posts (including 1437 submissions and 44,333 comments) to answer the following research questions: (1) What were the similarities and differences between public responses on Twitter and Reddit? (2) Considering the different mechanisms of Twitter and Reddit, what unique information of public responses can we learn from Reddit as compared with Twitter? By answering these research questions, we aim to bridge the gap of cross-platform public responses research towards natural hazards. Our study evinces that the users on the two different platforms have both different topics of interest and different sentiments towards the same earthquake, which indicates the necessity of investigating cross-platform OSNs to reveal a more comprehensive picture of people’s general public responses towards certain disasters. Our analysis also finds that r/conspiracy subreddit is one of the major venues where people discuss the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes on Reddit and different misinformation/conspiracies spread on Twitter and Reddit platforms (e.g., “Big one is coming” on Twitter and “Nuclear test” on Reddit). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T20:48:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-934ea73e615748d5ba26b794879a948d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T20:48:21Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-934ea73e615748d5ba26b794879a948d2022-12-22T01:34:10ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-01-0112111410.1038/s41598-022-05359-9Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and RedditTao Ruan0Qingkai Kong1Sara K. McBride2Amatullah Sethjiwala3Qin Lv4Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado BoulderLawrence Livermore National LaboratoryU.S. Geological SurveyDepartment of Computer Science, University of Colorado BoulderDepartment of Computer Science, University of Colorado BoulderAbstract Online social networks (OSNs) have become a powerful tool to study collective human responses to extreme events such as earthquakes. Most previous research concentrated on a single platform and utilized users’ behaviors on a single platform to study people’s general responses. In this study, we explore the characteristics of people’s behaviors on different OSNs and conduct a cross-platform analysis of public responses to earthquakes. Our findings support the Uses and Gratification theory that users on Reddit and Twitter are engaging with platforms that they may feel best reflect their sense of self. Using the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes as our study cases, we collected 510,579 tweets and 45,770 Reddit posts (including 1437 submissions and 44,333 comments) to answer the following research questions: (1) What were the similarities and differences between public responses on Twitter and Reddit? (2) Considering the different mechanisms of Twitter and Reddit, what unique information of public responses can we learn from Reddit as compared with Twitter? By answering these research questions, we aim to bridge the gap of cross-platform public responses research towards natural hazards. Our study evinces that the users on the two different platforms have both different topics of interest and different sentiments towards the same earthquake, which indicates the necessity of investigating cross-platform OSNs to reveal a more comprehensive picture of people’s general public responses towards certain disasters. Our analysis also finds that r/conspiracy subreddit is one of the major venues where people discuss the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes on Reddit and different misinformation/conspiracies spread on Twitter and Reddit platforms (e.g., “Big one is coming” on Twitter and “Nuclear test” on Reddit).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05359-9 |
| spellingShingle | Tao Ruan Qingkai Kong Sara K. McBride Amatullah Sethjiwala Qin Lv Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and Reddit Scientific Reports |
| title | Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and Reddit |
| title_full | Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and Reddit |
| title_fullStr | Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and Reddit |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and Reddit |
| title_short | Cross-platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence on Twitter and Reddit |
| title_sort | cross platform analysis of public responses to the 2019 ridgecrest earthquake sequence on twitter and reddit |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05359-9 |
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