Disasters
January 2015 Volume 39, Issue 1 Pages 1–184
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/disa.2015.39.issue-1/issuetoc

Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research
J. Brian Houston1,*, Joshua Hawthorne2, Mildred F. Perreault3, Eun Hae Park4, Marlo Goldstein Hode5, Michael R. Halliwell6, Sarah E. Turner McGowen7, Rachel Davis8, Shivani Vaid9, Jonathan A. McElderry10 and Stanford A. Griffith11
Article first published online: 22 SEP 2014
DOI: 10.1111/disa.12092
Abstract
A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012–13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.

Predicting support for non-pharmaceutical interventions during infectious outbreaks: a four region analysis
Francesca Matthews Pillemer1,*, Robert J. Blendon2, Alan M. Zaslavsky3 andBruce Y. Lee4
Article first published online: 22 SEP 2014
DOI: 10.1111/disa.12089
Abstract
Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are an important public health tool for responding to infectious disease outbreaks, including pandemics. However, little is known about the individual characteristics associated with support for NPIs, or whether they are consistent across regions. This study draws on survey data from four regions—Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States—collected following the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002–03, and employs regression techniques to estimate predictors of NPI support. It finds that characteristics associated with NPI support vary widely by region, possibly because of cultural variation and prior experience, and that minority groups tend to be less supportive of NPIs when arrest is the consequence of noncompliance. Prior experience of face-mask usage also results in increased support for future usage, as well as other NPIs. Policymakers should be attentive to local preferences and to the application of compulsory interventions. It is speculated here that some public health interventions may serve as ‘gateway’ exposures to future public health interventions.