Hughes et al. Twitter Adoption and Use in Crisis

Proceedings of the 6
th
International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009
J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds.

Twitter Adoption and Use
in Mass Convergence and Emergency Events

Amanda Lee Hughes
University of Colorado at Boulder
Amanda.Hughes@colorado.edu
Leysia Palen
University of Colorado at Boulder
Leysia.Palen@colorado.edu

ABSTRACT
This paper offers a descriptive account of Twitter (a micro-blogging service) across four high profile, mass
convergence events—two emergency and two national security. We statistically examine how Twitter is being
used surrounding these events, and compare and contrast how that behavior is different from more general
Twitter use. Our findings suggest that Twitter messages sent during these types of events contain more displays
of information broadcasting and brokerage, and we observe that general Twitter use seems to have evolved over
time to offer more of an information-sharing purpose. We also provide preliminary evidence that Twitter users
who join during and in apparent relation to a mass convergence or emergency event are more likely to become
long-term adopters of the technology.
Keywords
Twitter, micro-blogging, crisis informatics, emergency, social media
INTRODUCTION
Social media—mobile and web-based applications that allow people to communicate and share information
across multiple platforms—is experiencing rapid growth and is being adopted by many. How and why such
technology diffuses is a question of current import, as it is adding new dimensions to human interaction. Our
research addresses how social media is being used in emergency and mass convergence situations, where time
frames are often compressed and routine life is disrupted or changed in some fashion. Our interest is in
understanding the relationships between technology and social behavior during these non-routine situations.
This paper focuses on the features of Twitter use in emergency and mass convergence situations, and offers an
examination of some Twitter-based behaviors during late summer 2008. Twitter
1
is a micro-blogging service
that allows its users to share short messages up to 140 characters in length with each other. These short
messages are referred to as tweets and can be sent and retrieved across a wide variety of media including email,
text messaging, instant messaging, the Internet, and other third-party applications. Users may choose to share
their tweets publicly with anyone, or restrict access to their tweets so that only users they give permission may
view them.
Launched in October 2006, Twitter is estimated to now have over 3 million user accounts
2
. It is also ranked
number 20 in popularity among all social networking sites globally, with it being ranked the most popular
micro-blogging service
3
. Twitter attention and use is proliferating, with estimates that web traffic to the
Twitter.com site has grown over 600% from November 2007 to November 2008
4
.
With Twitter’s ability to send messages with mobile devices and easily broadcast those messages to a wide
audience, it would seem to be a natural fit for use during mass convergence and crisis events (provided that the
service is available). In late October 2007, instances of Twitter use in the diffuse Southern California US
wildfires to inform citizens of time-critical information about road closures, community evacuations, shifts in
fire lines, and shelter information suggested its more purposeful and widespread use in the future (Sutton, Palen
and Shklovski, 2008). More recently, Twitter was used by those in the area of effect to report on the events that
took place in the Mumbai, India terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008 (Stelter and Cohen, 2008). Finally, as

1
http://twitter.com
2
http://twitdir.com. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
3
http://alexa.com. Retrieved January 8, 2009.
4
http://compete.com. Retrieved January 7, 2009.

Hughes et al. Twitter Adoption and Use in Crisis

Proceedings of the 6
th
International ISCRAM Conference – Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009
J. Landgren and S. Jul, eds.

an example of mass convergence that is not centered on a crisis event, Twitter Vote Report
5
provided a
convenient way for Twitter users to document and report their experience at the polls on the US Presidential
Election Day, November 4, 2008 (Rosen, 2008). Twitter’s growing popularity is only making these occurrences
more frequent, and so it is with this in mind that we conducted the research presented here.
This research examines how Twitter was used during four US events that took place during a short duration of
time between August 21, 2008 and September 14, 2008 (see Figure 1). We examine Twitter activity during two
major US political conventions: the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and the Republican National
Convention (RNC). Twitter data was also collected around two Category 4 hurricanes that occurred as part of
the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season at the same time of the conventions: Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike.
The concentrated occurrence of events yields much data over a short period of time (a little over 3 weeks) that
allows stability in making interpretations of how Twitter was being used during this time. We then internally
compare and contrast features of the behavior observed between events, as well as compare the data to tweets
generated in the entire Twitter network during this same time period. Additionally, we can construct a sense for
what Twitter use was like in late summer 2008, such that we might be able to compare it to future events and
years (at the beginning of subsequent Atlantic hurricane seasons, for example) that will allow comparison of
Twitter adoption longitudinally.

Figure 1. Timeline of the four events we studied from August 21, 2008 to September 14, 2008.
EVENTS OF STUDY
Both the DNC and the RNC are large conventions where the two major American political parties (Democratic
and Republican respectively) decide who will represent their party in the United States presidential election. The
DNC took place August 25-28, 2008 in Denver, Colorado with an estimated attendance of 50,000. The RNC
took place the following week September 1-4, 2008 in Saint Paul, Minnesota with an estimated attendance of
45,000. Both conventions are designated as National Special Security Events (NSSE in which the US Secret
Service takes primary responsibility for the security around each event. Though these conventions are not
considered crisis events, preparation for and execution of these mass convergence events employs the same
federal and local personnel and organizational structures used in disaster planning and response.
Hurricane Gustav began as a tropical depression in the Caribbean Sea on August 25, 2008. Gustav hit Haiti,
Cuba, and several other Caribbean nations, claiming 78 lives before making landfall in the US on September 1
as a Category 3 hurricane. Nearly two million people evacuated the surrounding coastal areas for fear of a repeat
of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the US, 25 deaths were blamed on the storm by the time it was officially
declared over on September 4, 2008 (Lyons, 2008).
On September 1, 2008, Hurricane Ike developed as a tropical depression west of the Cape Verde Islands. Ike’s
outer bands passed over Haiti causing floods and mudslides that resulted in the deaths of 74 people. Later, on
September 7, Hurricane Ike hit Cuba causing extreme property damage and seven fatalities. Hurricane Ike was a
very large storm, so though it had lowered to a Category 2 hurricane by the time it made landfall in the US on
September 13, it still had widespread geographical effect. Mandatory evacuations were in effect for the city of

5
http://blog.twittervotereport.com