Social Media Messages in an Emerging Health Crisis: Tweeting Bird Flu

Limited research has examined the messages produced about health-related crises on social media platforms and whether these messages contain content that would allow individuals to make sense of a crisis and respond effectively. This study uses the crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC) framework to evaluate the content of messages sent via Twitter during an emerging crisis. Using manual and computer-driven content analysis methods, the study analyzed 25,598 tweets about the H7N9 virus that were produced in April 2013. The study found that a large proportion of messages contained sensemaking information. However, few tweets contained efficacy information that would help individuals respond to the crisis appropriately. Implications and recommendations for practice and future study are discussed.