Citizens' use of microblogging during emergency: A case study on water contamination in Shanghai

Microblogging has been increasingly used by governments and citizens in emergency response. This paper aims to explore how citizens use microblogging to participate in emergency situations. By analyzing microblog data during the 2013 Water Contamination Emergency in Shanghai, this paper shows that citizens used microblogging platforms as a bottom-up channel to communicate with government agencies. Four different ways to use microblogging have been identified. Findings reveal that citizens turned it into a social sensor for governments to monitor and adjust their response actions. Citizens' subjective opinions and judgment reflected their focuses and concerns during the emergency, although they were sometimes inaccurate. Citizens used microblogging platforms to participate while they were still lack of capability and motivation to develop a collaborative network with government agencies. Government agencies still face great challenges to monitor online public participation and to effectively separate key information from noise more.