Detecting the public’s information behaviour preferences in multiple emergency events

Abstract

Due to the frequent occurrence of public emergency events and the extensive use of social media in recent years, the public is more and more involved in the communication of public emergencies. As important members of the public, the rapid and massive information sharing of social media users makes them play an increasingly crucial role in the emergency processing. Hence, it is necessary to analyse information behaviours of social media users in emergency events. This article mined the information behaviours of users in multiple events to reflect the public’s behaviour preferences, aiming to provide information support for emergency handling. Specifically, we collected the user-generated contents related to emergency events, and then analysed the user-generated contents from multiple dimensions to obtain the corresponding information behaviours. Finally, based on the comparative analysis of four events, the information behaviour preferences of the public during emergencies were obtained. The experimental results indicate that the public’s behaviours in emergencies are related to their own interests and economic status, and curiosity about the details of events is the consistent appeal of the public.