Retransmitting Messages on Social Media in Disasters: Effects of Communication Tool Capabilities

Abstract

Retransmitted messages online can have profound effects on disaster response; however, existing literature provides an incomplete account of why messages are retransmitted on social media in disasters. In particular, there is a need to theorize the capabilities of the communication tools used for sending messages, because nowadays people can send messages online via different tools. This paper aims to theorize and explain how the capabilities of communication tools affect message retransmission by affecting the generation of message characteristics. To test our account, we collected and coded Twitter data from three disasters, and employed five logistic regressions to test our hypotheses. Our results confirm our expectations that compared to messages sent from desktops, messages sent from mobile devices are less likely to be helpful and verifiable, but are more likely to have visual attachments and expressions of anxiety.