Social Media and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management: How Have Reddit Travel Communities Experienced the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

Social media plays an important role in disaster risk reduction and management. This study brings text, emotion, and timeline analyses together to increase our understanding of online travel community members’ emotional dynamics and meaningful themes of concerns during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative data was collected from three online travel communities on Reddit. We found that, as the pandemic continued, Redditors’ concerns shifted from context-related external issues to daily-life-related internal issues. Furthermore, group-based emotions formed by the virtual community evolved positively, which can be beneficial for restoring confidence in travel after the pandemic. After presenting the results, we discuss their theoretical and practical implications.