Breaking news of disasters: How Stuff.co.nz and NZHerald.co.nz used Facebook and Twitter in the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake coverage in New Zealand

Abstract

This study looks at how media users reacted and engaged with Facebook and Twitter posts of two major New Zealand news websites-Stuff.co.nz and NZHerald.co.nz-during the coverage of the 7.8 magnitude Kaikoura earthquake in November 2016. Using posts (n = 975) on Facebook pages and tweets (n = 889) on Twitter handles of Stuff.co.nz and NZHerald.co.nz from 12 November to 17 November, we analysed how media users reacted to breaking news coverage of a major natural disaster. The results show that quake news gets significantly more interaction and reactions than non-quake news on both social media platforms. For Twitter, quake news gets significantly more interactions such as likes, and retweets, but not replies. However, for Facebook, quake news gets significantly more comments, likes, wows, and sad emotional feedbacks, but no significant difference in emotions such as love, haha, and angry. The emotions people have on Facebook indicate well the nature of the news. With Facebook's new function of reactions including, like, love, haha, wow, sad, angry, makes reactions more expressive and relevant. The study also shows a clear pattern of reactions on the two social media platforms across the timeline. While the number of posts keeps stable over the period, users' reactions soared in the first two days of the quake; The responses subsided after the chaotic period of the disaster was over. The study provides an insight into how mainstream news websites are using social media in reporting and engaging with users during major natural disasters. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.