Sneha Menon

Is All the Tweeting Just a Lot of Noise?: Twitter Use in Crisis Sneha Menon

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging platform is emerging as an important tool to communicate during crisis situations. Through use of this platform during crisis, we see an evolution of human response possible through the participatory and conversational nature of this medium. This study critically examines the use of Twitter during the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008 as a case study of human behaviour in crisis in the new media environment. Combining the content analysis and interview technique as part of the research design, this study uses an inductive approach to arrive at explanatory theoretical concepts. As a theoretical frame, it draws from concepts of sociological research of disaster studies and literature on online interactions in virtual communities.