Social media and disaster management: influencing e-participation content on disabilities

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to analyse the nature and forms of digital content that may influence e-participation for persons with disabilities (PWDs) during a flood disaster.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper undertakes a case study of the 2019 and 2020’s flood in Kerala, India. In-depth interviews with rehab workers during the flood are used in the study. Topic modelling and sentiment analysis are carried out using Twitter data. The native language responses from Facebook forums related to PWDs are analysed manually to construct taxonomy of problematic content

Findings

The results show that problematic content toward PWDs in the social media occurs during a flood. The extreme and exploitative content results in disability exclusion. Thus, e-participants fail to address the actual disability-specific requirements through social media during a disaster.

Research limitations/implications

The paper explores social media content toward PWDs. Implications of findings on citizens’ e-participation competency are delineated. Existing e-participation literature reports a low degree of disability e-participation in social media. Exploring disability e-participation helps to design more inclusive participation platforms. Further studies can explore the disability consciousness among e-participants for a more inclusive space.

Practical implications

The development of problematic content in the social media environment is alarming. Regulatory frameworks are also less adequate. Hence, policies for enabling inclusive participation that is not limited to the information technology infrastructure is needed.

Social implications

First, the citizens will get more insights for meaningful disability e-participation. Second, inclusive e-participation platform designs will help to reduce problematic content generation.

Originality/value

Disability e-participation requires regional studies. But there are fewer studies on disability e-participation from developing nations. The current study considered the regional context and complexities of disability e-participation. This paper gives policy recommendations for an inclusive e-participation.

Citation

Alathur, S., Kottakkunnummal, M. and Chetty, N. (2021), "Social media and disaster management: influencing e-participation content on disabilities", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 566-579. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-07-2020-0155