Citizens’ Use of Social Media: A Thematic Analysis on Digital Co-Production in Disaster Management

Abstract

Disaster Management is a method for saving lives and property that has been built over many years at great expense and effort. Forecasting demand, determining needs, procuring, storing, and handling inventory and coordination, and distributing relief to reduce losses before, during, and after any disaster are all important aspects of disaster management. Since natural disasters strike without warning, disaster management requires well-organized and coordinated planning before, during, and after the event. The use of ICT-based co-production can significantly improve disaster management by effectively and conveniently performing different operations to include diverse stakeholders. This study focuses on citizens utilizing social media in Disaster Management anchored on the co-production theory, as the framework in analyzing the interaction of citizens with the government through social media platform. Co-production theory considers other stakeholders outside an organization by their input toward producing products or services. Using qualitative case study design, this research was able to identify the factors that lead citizens to use social media during disaster and crisis situations using reflexive thematic analysis technique, for locating, analyzing, and interpreting meaning patterns (themes) in qualitative data. Findings indicated that using social media it will strengthen the communication between citizens and government or with the constituents, the ability to generate situational awareness about the crisis and disaster situations. The factors that lead citizens to used social media are the “Socialization” and “Altruism” themes. Those themes come from the interview conducted and transcribed the audio recordings into text conversation, collecting all the common among codes and produces themes. How social media facilitate citizens in co-producing valuable information includes “Collective Action,” “Collaboration,” and “Venue for Engagement” themes. The researchers further urge that this research be expanded to include not only ordinary citizens who use social media, but also social media leaders and community organizations, as they play an important role in society during disasters. The government may have all the means and equipment needed to mitigate disaster risks, but citizens, particularly community leaders, have the knowledge and expertise that the government needs to act and respond in those unfortunate situations.