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Survival of the Un-Fittest? A Study of Social Media-Based New Crisis Initiatives in the COVID 19 Pandemic

Weinryb, Noomi ; Gustafsson, Nils LU orcid and Tyllström, Anna (2023) ICA 2023
Abstract
Focusing on Sweden in the COVID 19 pandemic, this paper explores the
organizational/communicational practices of new crisis initiatives, defined as informal,
emergent, and loosely coordinated interactions between individuals and/or organizations using social media to engage in crisis relief efforts. By manually tracing crisis relief efforts on Facebook in the spring of 2020 and the fall of 2021, we build a comprehensive data set that enables us to learn more about collective action and strategic communication in a crisis. We find that these new crisis ini iatives differ from formal organizations, and that they encompass collective action coordinated by either: 1) a single individual 2) a network of individuals 3) a network of... (More)
Focusing on Sweden in the COVID 19 pandemic, this paper explores the
organizational/communicational practices of new crisis initiatives, defined as informal,
emergent, and loosely coordinated interactions between individuals and/or organizations using social media to engage in crisis relief efforts. By manually tracing crisis relief efforts on Facebook in the spring of 2020 and the fall of 2021, we build a comprehensive data set that enables us to learn more about collective action and strategic communication in a crisis. We find that these new crisis ini iatives differ from formal organizations, and that they encompass collective action coordinated by either: 1) a single individual 2) a network of individuals 3) a network of individuals with an organizational base 4) a network of organizations. The development of these subcategories differs, and depends on the interplay of individuals and organizations within them. We find that new crisis initiatives that involve networks of individuals, both with and without an organizational base, are more attuned to changes in crisis needs, in comparison to initiatives based either on a single individual or on a
network of organizations. We attribute these differences to four key dimensions of their organizing process: social media reliance, ground for credibility, management routines, and responsiveness demands. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
social media, Facebook, COVID -19, crisis communication, organizational communication, mobilisation, social movements, social resilience
conference name
ICA 2023
conference dates
2023-05-25 - 2023-05-29
project
Audit Society 2.0 - Taking a new turn? Organizational use and consequences of external reporting on social media.
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
02bcc142-2ffe-4080-a431-53e3b0826551
date added to LUP
2023-05-25 15:44:28
date last changed
2023-05-26 12:40:44
@misc{02bcc142-2ffe-4080-a431-53e3b0826551,
  abstract     = {{Focusing on Sweden in the COVID 19 pandemic, this paper explores the<br/>organizational/communicational practices of new crisis initiatives, defined as informal,<br/>emergent, and loosely coordinated interactions between individuals and/or organizations using social media to engage in crisis relief efforts. By manually tracing crisis relief efforts on Facebook in the spring of 2020 and the fall of 2021, we build a comprehensive data set that enables us to learn more about collective action and strategic communication in a crisis. We find that these new crisis ini iatives differ from formal organizations, and that they encompass collective action coordinated by either: 1) a single individual 2) a network of individuals 3) a network of individuals with an organizational base 4) a network of organizations. The development of these subcategories differs, and depends on the interplay of individuals and organizations within them. We find that new crisis initiatives that involve networks of individuals, both with and without an organizational base, are more attuned to changes in crisis needs, in comparison to initiatives based either on a single individual or on a<br/>network of organizations. We attribute these differences to four key dimensions of their organizing process: social media reliance, ground for credibility, management routines, and responsiveness demands.}},
  author       = {{Weinryb, Noomi and Gustafsson, Nils and Tyllström, Anna}},
  keywords     = {{social media; Facebook; COVID -19; crisis communication; organizational communication; mobilisation; social movements; social resilience}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  title        = {{Survival of the Un-Fittest? A Study of Social Media-Based New Crisis Initiatives in the COVID 19 Pandemic}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/147492646/Weinryb_et_al_Survival_of_the_unfittest.pdf}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}