"Hurricane attention maps" reveal that higher-category storms generate many times more Twitter attention than lower-category storms, even when they cause the same damage and death.
Article Title: Hurricanes and hashtags: Characterizing online collective attention for natural disasters
Funding: This work was supported by gifts from the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and Google. Additionally, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company provided support in the form of salaries for author DRD, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions' section.
Competing Interests: I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Author DRD's commercial affiliation with paid employment. Additionally, we have received funding from a commercial source: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and Google. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
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