Expressions of risk awareness and concern through Twitter: On the utility of using the medium as an indication of audience needs Kenneth A. Lachlan a,⇑ , Patric R. Spence b , Xialing Lin c a Communication Department, University of Massachusetts Boston, United States b Division of Instructional Communication & Research, University of Kentucky, United States c College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky, United States article info Article history: Available online xxxx Keywords: Twitter Social media Emergency management Risk communication Crisis communication abstract Twitter is increasingly gaining momentum as a trusted source for news and information. A significant body of research suggests that during crises and emergencies, people rely on the medium for timely updates and real time information. Simultaneously, Twitter content may be a useful tool for identifying specific audience needs and concerns. The current study quantitatively analyzed tweets related to Hur- ricane Sandy in the days leading up to landfall. Areas examined include expressions of risk awareness and concern, and the ways in which these statements differ across age, sex, ethnicity, and language group. The findings are discussed in terms of the ways in which emergency managers may be able to use the system- atic analysis of Twitter content in identifying audience needs. Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Social networking sites are increasingly gaining credibility as information sources. Microblogging sites such as Twitter allow us to access information from both official organizations and public citizens, instantaneously covering events as they happen. At the same time, the information broadcast on Twitter may help to provide a sense of the needs and responses of those affected by large scale events as they are taking place. Thus, the possibility exists that crisis managers and emergency responders may be able to use Twitter as a bellwether for the specific needs and concerns aired by varying publics during crises and disasters. The current study offers a content analysis of information that was tweeted in the time leading up to the landfall of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It describes the relative frequency of expressions of risk awareness and concern, building off of past psychometric work in risk analysis categorizing different types of risk perception. It explores differences in these risk perceptions across age, sex, ethnicity, and language group. These differences are discussed in the utility of the study of Twitter content in evaluating the needs and concerns of different sectors of the audience, and the ways in which this information may be used to inform emergency man- agement operations. 1.1. Identifying different types of risk A substantive body of work in the risk communication literature has examined risk perceptions primarily in terms of fear (Reynolds & Seeger, 1995). This is somewhat problematic, as this literature often works under the assumption that the induction of any negative emotion can be qualified as fear, and that any type of fear will have relatively similar effects on response to one’s surround- ings. (Dillard, Plotnick, Godbold, Freimuth, & Edgar, 1996; Higbee, 1969). More recent research on audience responses to threats and risks has moved toward a more sophisticated understanding of the concept (Trumbo & McComas, 2003). For example, one research program has argued that responses to risk can be broadly catego- rized into two dimensions: knowledge and dread (Slovic, 1994). Dread is defined as the perception of the likelihood that a risk will harm those who are not directly involved. Conversely, knowledge is the cognitive understanding of the effects that a risk may have on those whom it will affect. Trumbo and McComas (2003) argue for another dimension of risk perception, this one detailing the per- ception of the number of people who are likely to be affected by the risk at hand; this is consistent with other research in the risk analysis canon (Slovic, Fischhoff, & Lichtenstein, 1986). Sandman’s (1999) Risk = Hazard + Outrage offers similar argu- ments for the multi-faceted nature of risk perception, arguing that alarm, magnitude, and probability are critical components in what we can expect from audiences under duress. Sandman, Miller, Johnston, and Weinstein (1993), add that outrage, or the affective http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.029 0747-5632/Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 617 287 6798; fax: +1 617 287 6768. E-mail address: Ken.lachlan@umb.edu (K.A. Lachlan). Computers in Human Behavior xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh Please cite this article in press as: Lachlan, K. A., et al. Expressions of risk awareness and concern through Twitter: On the utility of using the medium as an indication of audience needs. Computers in Human Behavior (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.029