The Study of Mobile Public Warning Messages: A Research Review and Agenda

In 2011, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began authorizing emergency management officials to broadcast Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) to cellular phones and other mobile devices to help notify people of imminent hazards. WEAs are 90-characters long, geographically targeted emergency messages sent by government alerting authorities through the nation's mobile telecommunications networks, which, for the first time, allow officials to directly notify at-risk publics where they live and work. The use of WEAs has outpaced investigation of their benefits, limitations, and actual and potential consequences. To address this critical gap in scholarship and public understanding, we integrate literature from the fields of public warning, instructional crisis communication, and mobile health communication. Combining these literatures, we outline a theoretical and applied communication research agenda for public warning messages delivered over mobile devices.

[1]  Ralph Maddison,et al.  A Development and Evaluation Process for mHealth Interventions: Examples From New Zealand , 2012, Journal of health communication.

[2]  Adam Crowe,et al.  The social media manifesto: a comprehensive review of the impact of social media on emergency management. , 2011, Journal of business continuity & emergency planning.

[3]  John H. Sorensen,et al.  Hazard Warning Systems: Review of 20 Years of Progress , 2000 .

[4]  Michael J. Brnich,et al.  Sociotechnical communication in an underground mine fire: a study of warning messages during an emergency evacuation , 1993 .

[5]  Mario Nacinovich,et al.  Defining mHealth , 2011 .

[6]  Eve Gruntfest,et al.  Information sources for flash flood warnings in Denver, CO and Austin, TX , 2007 .

[7]  Dennis S. Mileti,et al.  Communication of Emergency Public Warnings: A Social Science Perspective and State-of-the-Art Assessment , 1990 .

[8]  Nicholas Frank Pidgeon,et al.  Volcanic hazard communication using maps: an evaluation of their effectiveness , 2007 .

[9]  A. Bandura Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. , 1977, Psychological review.

[10]  D. Buller,et al.  Using language intensity to increase the success of a family intervention to protect children from ultraviolet radiation: predictions from language expectancy theory. , 2000, Preventive medicine.

[11]  Klaus J. Wagner,et al.  Evaluation of flood hazard maps in print and web mapping services as information tools in flood risk communication. , 2009 .

[12]  Michael K. Lindell,et al.  The Protective Action Decision Model Applied to Evacuation During the Three Mile Island Crisis , 1984, International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters.

[13]  Michael K. Lindell,et al.  Household Decision Making and Evacuation in Response to Hurricane Lili , 2005 .

[14]  Christopher B. Mayhorn,et al.  Warning the world of extreme events: A global perspective on risk communication for natural and technological disaster , 2014 .

[15]  Tony Liao,et al.  Mobile Geotagging: Reexamining Our Interactions with Urban Space , 2011, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[16]  B. Fjeldsoe,et al.  Behavior change interventions delivered by mobile telephone short-message service. , 2009, American journal of preventive medicine.

[17]  Henry W. Fischer,et al.  Evacuation behaviour: why do some evacuate, while others do not? A case study of the Ephrata, Pennsylvania (USA) evacuation , 1995 .

[18]  T. Grothmann,et al.  People at Risk of Flooding: Why Some Residents Take Precautionary Action While Others Do Not , 2006 .

[19]  J. H. Sorensen,et al.  When Shall We Leave?: Factors Affecting the Timing of Evacuation Departures , 1991 .

[20]  Timothy L. Sellnow,et al.  Effective Risk Communication: A Message-Centered Approach , 2008 .

[21]  D. Mileti,et al.  The social psychology of public response to warnings of a nuclear power plant accident. , 2000, Journal of hazardous materials.

[22]  Upasna Sharma,et al.  Assessing adaptive capacity to tropical cyclones in the East coast of India: a pilot study of public response to cyclone warning information , 2009 .

[23]  Keri K. Stephens,et al.  Organizational Communication in Emergencies: Using Multiple Channels and Sources to Combat Noise and Capture Attention , 2013 .

[24]  Paolo Coppola,et al.  The Concept of Relevance in Mobile and Ubiquitous Information Access , 2003, Mobile HCI Workshop on Mobile and Ubiquitous Information Access.

[25]  Havidán Rodríguez,et al.  Population Composition, Migration and Inequality: The Influence of Demographic Changes on Disaster Risk and Vulnerability , 2008 .

[26]  D. Mileti,et al.  Communication in Crisis , 1975 .

[27]  Craig Lefebvre,et al.  Integrating Cell Phones and Mobile Technologies Into Public Health Practice: A Social Marketing Perspective , 2009, Health promotion practice.

[28]  David B Buller,et al.  Randomized trial of a smartphone mobile application compared to text messaging to support smoking cessation. , 2014, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.

[29]  Carter T. Butts,et al.  Warning tweets: serial transmission of messages during the warning phase of a disaster event , 2014 .

[30]  Timothy L. Sellnow,et al.  The Instructional Dynamic of Risk and Crisis Communication: Distinguishing Instructional Messages from Dialogue , 2010 .

[31]  Holley A. Wilkin,et al.  You Have an Important Message! Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Text Message HIV/AIDS Campaign in Northwest Uganda , 2012, Journal of health communication.

[32]  Barbara J Reynolds,et al.  Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication as an Integrative Model , 2005, Journal of health communication.

[33]  S. Rubin,et al.  Effectiveness of mHealth Behavior Change Communication Interventions in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review of the Literature , 2012, Journal of health communication.

[34]  David King How People Responded to the April 2007 Tsunami Warning in Cairns and Townsville , 2008 .

[35]  Triin Vihalemm,et al.  Citizens' Response Patterns to Warning Messages , 2012 .

[36]  Zhenhua Liu,et al.  A study of Mobile Instant Messaging adoption: within-culture variation , 2011, Int. J. Mob. Commun..

[37]  Shari R Veil,et al.  Instructional Messages During Health-Related Crises: Essential Content for Self-Protection , 2014, Health communication.

[38]  Kim Harrison,et al.  Public perceptions and risk communications for botulism. , 2004, Biosecurity and bioterrorism : biodefense strategy, practice, and science.

[39]  Joseph Trainor,et al.  Geographic Specificity, Tornadoes, and Protective Action , 2012 .

[40]  D. L. Simms,et al.  Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies , 1986 .

[41]  Doris Dransch,et al.  The contribution of maps to the challenges of risk communication to the public , 2010, Int. J. Digit. Earth.

[42]  K. Witte Putting the fear back into fear appeals: The extended parallel process model , 1992 .

[43]  Glen T. Cameron,et al.  Toward a Publics-Driven, Emotion-Based Conceptualization in Crisis Communication: Unearthing Dominant Emotions in Multi-Staged Testing of the Integrated Crisis Mapping (ICM) Model , 2012 .

[44]  Derek R. Lane,et al.  Instruction in crisis situations: Targeting learning preferences and self-efficacy , 2013 .

[45]  J. Sørensen,et al.  Community Processes: Warning and Evacuation , 2007 .

[46]  R. Perry,et al.  The march 1980 eruptions of mt. St. Helens: citizen perceptions of volcano threat. , 1981, Disasters.

[47]  Telecommunications Board,et al.  Public Response to Alerts and Warnings Using Social Media: Report of a Workshop on Current Knowledge and Research Gaps , 2013 .

[48]  Patricia Mechael,et al.  Capitalizing on the Characteristics of mHealth to Evaluate Its Impact , 2012, Journal of health communication.

[49]  Dennis S. Mileti,et al.  Public response to flood warnings , 1994 .

[50]  Ian Lings,et al.  Consumer acceptance of m-wellbeing services : a social marketing perspective , 2013 .

[51]  Thomas E. Drabek,et al.  Understanding disaster warning responses. , 1999 .

[52]  Dennis S. Mileti,et al.  The Role of Searching in Shaping Reactions to Earthquake Risk Information , 1997 .

[53]  Alla Keselman,et al.  Toward a framework for understanding lay public's comprehension of disaster and bioterrorism information , 2005, J. Biomed. Informatics.

[54]  Steven M Becker,et al.  ADDRESSING THE PSYCHOSOCIAL AND COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES POSED BY RADIOLOGICAL/NUCLEAR TERRORISM: KEY DEVELOPMENTS SINCE NCRP REPORT NO. 138 , 2005, Health physics.

[55]  Deanna D. Sellnow,et al.  The Value of Instructional Communication in Crisis Situations: Restoring Order to Chaos , 2012, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.