ATNIX: Australian Twitter News Index, March 2017

For anyone based in Australia – and especially for those of us here in Queensland – the major domestic news story of March 2017 is no doubt the impact of Tropical Cyclone Debbie on the coastal communities of the central coast Queensland. It is not entirely surprising, however, that the cyclone fails to impact strongly …

Researching Social Media in Times of Crisis

I’ve just returned home from the Social Media in Times of Crisis conference at the State Library of Queensland, which we organised together with our ARC Linkage partners at the Eidos Institute, and I’m pleased to report that it was a very stimulating and successful event – at one point, the associated hashtag #SMTC13 even …

Social Media in Times of Crisis 2013: Register Now!

Our research into the use of social media for crisis communication, which produced last year’s report on the use of Twitter during the 2011 Queensland floods and a variety of other outputs (on the Christchurch earthquakes, Hurricane Sandy, and other events), continues at pace, even if there haven’t been a great many updates about it …

Twitter and Crisis Communication from #qldfloods to #sandy

My recent trip to a number of European conferences and other research events also provided an opportunity to present some of our ongoing work on the use of social media in crisis communication – as our ARC Linkage project with the Queensland Department of Community Safety and the Eidos Institute begins in earnest, this will …

Around the World in 28 Days (and 14 Papers)

It’s that time of the year again, when I set off for the usual end-of-year round of conferences – and this year has turned out to be an especially busy one. As I write this, Jean and I are already in Toronto for the inaugural workshop of a Canadian-funded, multi-partner research project on Social Media …

Call for Applicants: PhD Researcher on Crisis Communication Linkage Project

Regular visitors to this site will be well familiar with our research into the use of social media in crisis communication – especially in the context of the 2011 Queensland floods and Christchurch earthquakes. We’re now about to commence a further major research project in this area, working in collaboration with the Queensland Department of …

Twitter, the Queensland Floods, and the ABC

And finally for our series of conference presentations over the past couple of weeks, here’s our talk from the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association conference in Brisbane last week. This was a bit of a strange one, as the conference schedule meant that we had to present it three times – Jean did the first one, and …

Earthquakes on Twitter: Analysing the Four Christchurch #eqnz Events

Continuing the catch-up with recent publications and presentations, I also wanted to share the paper which Jean Burgess and I presented at the Australia New Zealand Disaster and Emergency Management conference in Brisbane last week. The paper (slides and audio are below) constitutes our most comprehensive analysis to date of the use of Twitter in …

CCI Report on #qldfloods and @QPSMedia in the 2011 Floods

It’s difficult to believe that one year ago, significant parts of Brisbane were inundated by floodwaters; thankfully, there has been no repeat of the flood crisis this year. One of the few good news stories to emerge from the disaster was the – overall, very successful – way in which social media such as Twitter …

New ARC Linkage project: Social media in times of crisis

This morning the Australian Research Council announced the latest round of major grant funding, and I’m pleased to be able to report some very good news. Along with our CCI colleagues Kate Crawford and Terry Flew, Axel and I were awarded funding for a Linkage Project on the uses of social media for crisis communication, …