Shaken and stirred: Social representations, social media, and community empowerment in emergency contexts
In this paper we examine the use of Twitter and Facebook in two dramatic earthquakes that hit Italy: L’Aquila (in 2009) and Emilia (in 2012). Indeed, disasters disrupt everyday life and engage people in meaning-making processes aimed at recovering meaning and control of their world. In these cases, we argue that the use of social media may contribute to social representa- tions processes and functions: cognitive coping, social sharing of emotions, preserving self-efficacy, boosting identity, and community empowerment.