Uuf Brajawidagda

Crowdsourcing Hazardous Weather Reports from Citizens via Twittersphere under the Short Warning Lead Times of EF5 Intensity Tornado Conditions

The May 20 2013 tornado in Oklahoma has demonstrated the short warning lead times of EF5 intensity tornadoes, even with the integrated Next Generation Weather Surveillance Doppler Radar network, remain a challenge both for governments responsible for early warnings and citizens who need to respond appropriately. Although research on government use of social media for adaptable disaster response is emerging, little is known about social media-mediated early tornado warnings and crowd sourcing in the e-government literature. This research, therefore, aims to reduce this gap in the literature through a case study of the National Weather Services experimental use of Twitter for crowd sourcing hazardous weather reports from citizens during and in the immediate aftermath of the May 20 tornado. Our social network analysis and content analysis results found evidence for value of the #okwx Twitter sphere to tie closely the government and volunteer citizen tornado watchers and enable multi-directional interactive conversations and crowdsourcing.

Twitter Early Tsunami Warning System: A Case Study in Indonesia's Natural Disaster Management

Twitter demonstrated its value as a viable substitute to traditional communication channels during the recent disasters. However, little is written about Twitter in government for an early disaster warning system. In this exploratory empirical research, we aim to address the question: How does the government use Twitter to inform the public about disaster hazards and vulnerability? Case study and tweets content analysis are conducted on Indonesias Twitter early tsunami warning system to answer the question in the context of the three earthquakes occurred off the west coast of Sumatra during the period of 2010-2012. Data are collected from egovernment websites of agencies involved in disaster preparedness and response. This research concludes that the Twitter-based warning system demonstrated its value as a viable complement to Indonesias InaTEWS - a comprehensive disaster information management system for governments - by informing the public and creating public value through its communication speed, reach and information quality.

E-government, social media, and risk perception communication at the edge of disaster: findings from the Mt. Sinabung eruption in Indonesia

Despite operational volcano surveillance using meteorological satellite, thermal remote sensing and infrared camera technologies, predicting its hazardous activity and explosive eruption, with any accuracy, remains nearly impossible. Against this, volcanic hazards and risk literature identifies risk communication as a new research challenge. This study presents insights from the disaster risk communication practice, during the Mt. Sinabung eruptions in February 2014, causing 16 deaths and continuous evacuations of 30,000 local residents. We examined IT uses, including e-government websites and social media, which facilitated or inhibited communications of risk perceptions by governments, the affected villagers, and the public. Based on findings, we discuss socio-political and socio-technical implications for overcoming inter-agency coordination and clear cross-jurisdictional communication challenges so as to improve external political efficacy of volcanic risk communication and to empower the public living at the edge of disaster and take appropriate and timely responses that would mitigate the volcanic hazards and risk.

Increasing Policy Success through the Use of Social Media Cross-Channels for Citizen Political Engagement

In the ubiquitous digitization era, governments increasingly adopt multi-social media channels for the purpose of facilitating citizen engagement towards enhanced government transparency, external political efficacy and policy success. However, little is known about the use of social media cross-channel information-sharing mechanisms for promoting citizen political engagement. We draw on theories of citizen interaction and citizen-centric e-governance to examine the central research question: How can citizens’ become politically engaged through the use of social media cross communication channels? Specifically, we examine and explain YouTube-enabled government-to-citizens interactions and YouTubeTwitter cross-channel information-sharing behaviors among citizens in response to Jakarta, Indonesia’s use of YouTube to inform citizens of the government transparency initiative. We applied social network analysis to examine the structure of and information flows within Twitter social networks formed through the use of cross-channel information-sharing mechanism by YouTube users to tweet the promotion of the YouTube-enabled government transparency videos to their Twitter followers.

The imperative of government transparency in crisis communication: the case of AirAsia QZ8501 crash

This paper examines the role of government transparency in crisis communication in influencing national and/or international public opinions during an enfolding aviation disaster. Using case study research on the 2014 AirAsia QZ8501 crash, we addressed the research question: How does government transparency in crisis communication influence national public opinions? We examined 1,896 newspaper articles from December 28, 2014 to January 14, 2015. Of these articles, we specifically conducted content analysis on 328 articles published during December 28--30, 2014 that cited government organization as their information source. From our content analysis several key themes surfaced to shed some light on the role of government transparency in crisis communication. Based on evidence, we proposed a model of government transparency in crisis communication as influenced by government leadership and search and rescue process openness; information quality, search and rescue structure and information and communication technologies use may also moderate the models key relationships.

Social Media and Urban Resilience: A Case Study of the 2016 Jakarta Terror Attack

The rise of urban terrorism worldwide underscores an urgent research need for public administration. The unpredictable nature of urban terrorism requires resilience of the city. This paper examines the role of social media in effecting urban resilience during the 2016 Jakarta terrorism, by raising two research questions: 1) what are critical capabilities necessary for urban resilience in the face of urban terrorism? 2) how does social media effect urban resilience? We collected 212 articles published by Detik.com, an online news article website based in Indonesia, for media content analysis. Moreover, we closely examined the use of social media by Jakarta stakeholders on January 14, 2016. By drawing on adaptive capacity research, our study finds that urban resilience was influenced by capabilities such as information and communication, competence, social capital, and leaderships. Our findings indicate the critical role of social media in leveraging the salient capabilities for faster recovery from the terror attack and hence greater urban resilience.