The Role of Twitter during a Natural Disaster: Case Study of 2011 Thai Flood

With the emergence of Web 2.0, social media became a key platform that allowed people to interact and share information. Unlike traditional internet media, the Web 2.0 platform facilitates not only users' ability to access information; but also their ability to comment on information already existing in the web sphere, and to publish or republish information. Over the last few years, users of social media have played an increasing role in the dissemination of emergency and disaster information. In this paper, we conduct a case study exploring how Thai people used social media such as Twitter in response to one of the country's worst disasters in recent history: the 2011 Thai Flood. By analyzing these user-generated messages we may assist local communities in obtaining up-to-date information; emergency rescuers in providing assistance according to the needs of the populace in a timely manner or government agencies in analyzing and developing methods to use similar information to better centralize, coordinate, manage and plan disaster relief both during and after the event.