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The New Ecology of Tornado Warning Information: A Natural Experiment Assessing Threat Intensity and Citizen‐to‐Citizen Information Sharing
Author(s) -
Robinson Scott E.,
Pudlo Jason M.,
Wehde Wesley
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/puar.13030
Subject(s) - tornado , context (archaeology) , information sharing , event (particle physics) , storm , natural disaster , extreme weather , variety (cybernetics) , warning system , social media , business , environmental resource management , political science , public relations , ecology , geography , climate change , computer science , environmental science , meteorology , biology , telecommunications , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , law
Abstract The complexity of the modern information ecosystem raises many questions for public organizations. In the context of emergency management, information (such as warning messages) is communicated not only from a source of authority to the public but also between members of the public. The authors use a series of storms that affected Oklahoma in the spring of 2016 to test propositions related to how information about tornado warnings reached the public and who received and shared information about the storm, as well as to identify how gender and age mediate the influence that exposure to an extreme weather event has on the sharing of this information. Overall, the authors find that reported exposure to a tornado increases information sharing through a variety of media and technology. The effect of the tornado erases the otherwise present gender gap in sharing information, while it has little effect on the media platforms that are most popular among older respondents .