Be Social: Science Communication during the 2018 Kīlauea Eruption
Robert Goldman
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Date & Time
- Location
- Online-only seminar via Microsoft Teams
- Host
- Sara McBride
- Summary
The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano was the first natural hazard crisis event in which USGS social media communications played a major role in providing reliable, around-the-clock eruption information to publics. These communications complemented traditional channels including HVO’s website, radio and television broadcasts, newspaper articles, automated text or email alerts, and in-person community meetings. As part of my National Science Foundation Graduate Research Internship, I conducted two complementary investigations of these communications. First, I analyzed semi-structured in-person interviews conducted with residents of Hawai‘i in January 2020 to identify themes describing residents’ preferred sources, messengers, and channels of 2018 eruption information. I then analyzed the public comment threads of the @USGSVolcanoes Facebook page to determine how well dialogues between @USGSVolcanoes scientists and non-USGS users answered users’ eruption-related questions, addressed occurrences of misinformation, and benefitted users’ overall emotional state.
From this work, my collaborators and I identified the role that messengers’ perceived trustworthiness and credibility played in Hawai‘i residents’ reliance on information delivered by those messengers. We also learned that among the most frequently viewed @USGSVolcanoes Facebook posts, 73% of users’ questions were directly answered while 54% of comments containing misinformation were directly corrected or called out. Moreover, most users’ comments on the @USGSVolcanoes Facebook page contained positive emotions that reflect appreciation of the information provided by @USGSVolcanoes scientists. I conclude this talk by discussing the implications of our findings for planning future hazard communications in Hawai‘i and elsewhere.
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