Integrating social media features into a cell phone alert system for emergency situations

Abstract

In times of emergency, people include social networking sites (SNS) in their search for information and support. An online survey with an embedded experiment with two conditions focused on understanding whether and how SNS functions have a positive influence on perceived self-efficacy, risk perception, and reported information sufficiency when integrated into a current emergency alert system like NL-Alert. Participants were randomly assigned to a control condition showing the classical format of NL-Alert or the expanded condition with added SNS functions (a newsfeed and marking oneself as safe). Results show that self-efficacy and risk perception did not differ between conditions. Significantly higher degrees of information sufficiency were reported in the expanded condition. Consequences for emergency risk communication are discussed.