Hurricanes and hashtags: online collective attention for natural disasters (IMAGE)
Caption
Hashtag attention map and usage rate time series. For 1-grams matching the case-insensitive pattern "#hurricane*" for all four hurricanes reaching at least category 4 in the 2017 hurricane season. Markers along the hurricane trajectory indicate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported position for every day at noon UTC. On the map, the smoothed rate of hashtag usage is wrapped in an envelope around the hurricane trajectory in panel A, showing the spatial dependence of attention on Twitter. In the lower two plots, panels B and C, we show the usage rates for hashtags and 2-grams matching hurricane* in English language tweets on linear and logarithmic scales. Usage rates within all tweets are indicated with a solid line, while usage rates in 'organic' tweets (tweets that are not retweets), are represented by a dashed line. The day of maximum attention on Twitter is marked with a star or a diamond for hashtags or 2-grams, respectively. Generally, hurricanes making landfall on the continental United States received greater attention than those not making landfall. The hashtag usage rate for hurricanes Harvey and Irma at their maximum were approximately an order of magnitude larger than the maximum hashtag usage corresponding to Hurricane Maria, and two orders of magnitude larger than Hurricane Jose.
Credit
Arnold et al, 2021, PLOS ONE (CC-BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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CC BY: Redistribution permitted with credit
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