Ricerc@Sapienza

The article describes how ordinary citizens used Twitter as an emergency-management tool during the heavy floods that occurred in Sardinia, Italy, in November 2013. The case study constitutes an example of digital volunteering in the aftermath of a disaster event. The article applies the connective action framework (Bennet & Segerberg, 2012) for a deeper understanding of the dynamics of self-organized disaster communication activities on social media.

The scope of the chapter is to provide an interpretive hypothesis on the different functions of different media in the aftermath of a disaster, drawing upon theoretical and empirical literature and case-studies in the light of Uses and Gratification perspective. Moving from the way people engage with media and interpersonal source, the chapter addresses disaster communication in the light of both collective needs and its related social functions, considering how people actually interact with communication to cope with disasters.