Cultivating User Engagement in Multimodal Crisis Communication on Social Media

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Department of Computer Science and Engineering


PhD Thesis Defence


Title: "Cultivating User Engagement in Multimodal Crisis Communication on
Social Media"

By

Mr. Changyang HE


Abstract:

Social media platforms have emerged as crucial information hubs during crises.
Compared to mass media, social media enables two-way communication between
citizens and government, and affords crowdsourced information creation and
dissemination by the public. The advancement of social media has expanded
crisis communication beyond text, embracing multiple modalities like images,
videos, and audio.

Cultivating user engagement in crisis communication, including behavioral,
cognitive, and emotional engagement, is of great significance in facilitating
the development of citizens' situational awareness of crises, and enhancing
resilience for crisis response. However, obstacles such as information
overload, misinformation, and uncertainty during crises hinder effective
engagement. It remains unclear how multimodal crisis communication presents
opportunities and challenges in engaging and informing the public.
Understanding user engagement in multimodal crisis communication can inform
effective communication strategies and design opportunities for social media
platforms in crisis contexts.

In order to fill this gap, this dissertation examines user engagement under the
integrated use of rich text, images, and videos in crisis communication,
covering diverse significant crisis communication objectives such as knowledge
sharing, emotional connection, and help-seeking. This dissertation starts with
the investigation of help-seeking and research-sensemaking as two
representative cases of crisis communication in rich text, capturing how users
naturally develop narrative strategies for the two crisis communication tasks.
Then, focusing on image-embedded posts during a health crisis local outbreak, I
adopt a mixed-methods approach to understanding themes, goals, and strategies
of crisis imagery, highlighting the visual-text correlation for informational
and emotional goals. Finally, by centering on crisis videos, my research
answers how innovative video-creation strategies such as recreational elements
and government-citizen collaboration play a role in engaging users, and how
interactive video-commenting features such as asynchronous comments and
synchronous danmaku supplement videos in crisis communication.

Collectively, this dissertation highlights the significance of multimodal
crisis communication, encompassing rich text, images, and videos, in
effectively engaging users on social media platforms during times of crisis.
The findings offer valuable insights and design implications to cultivate user
engagement, foster resilience, and ensure the dissemination of timely and
accurate information during challenging circumstances.


Date:                   Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Time:                   4:00pm - 6:00pm

Venue:                  Room 5501
                        Lifts 25/26

Chairman:               Prof. King Lau CHOW (CBE)

Committee Members:      Prof. Bo LI (Supervisor)
                        Prof. Qiong LUO
                        Prof. Wei WANG
                        Prof. Shuhuai YAO (MAE)
                        Prof. Dan WANG (HKPU)