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. 2021 Dec 11;18(24):13070.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph182413070.

Information Preference and Information Supply Efficiency Evaluation before, during, and after an Earthquake: Evidence from Songyuan, China

Shasha Li  1 , Xinyu Peng  1 , Ruiqiu Pang  1 , Li Li  1 , Zixuan Song  2 , Hongying Ye  3
Affiliations

Information Preference and Information Supply Efficiency Evaluation before, during, and after an Earthquake: Evidence from Songyuan, China

Shasha Li et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Efficient risk communication is aimed at improving the supply of risk information to meet the information needs of individuals, thus reducing their vulnerability when facing the risk of emergency. There is little information available in the literature regarding information preference from an individual's need perspective, and there is a lack of differentiation in evaluation between information need and supply. Under the guidance of the crisis stage analysis theory, using multiple response analysis and weighted analysis methods, this study explores earthquake disaster information content and communication channel preferences, and develops an information deviation index (IDI) to evaluate the efficiency of risk communication before, during, and after an earthquake. A questionnaire-based survey of 918 valid respondents in Songyuan, China, which had been hit by a small earthquake swarm, was conducted to provide practical evidence for this study. The results indicated the following. Firstly, the information needs of individuals are highly differentiated in the different stages of an earthquake. From pre-disaster to post-disaster, individuals show a shift in information need from "preparedness and response knowledge" to "disaster information", then to "disaster information and disaster relief information" in parallel, to "reconstruction and reflection information". Based on the above analysis, a composition of the main earthquake disaster information is proposed for different stages. Secondly, by measuring the values of the IDI, we found that most individuals' information needs were met for the earthquake. Thirdly, the TV and the internet were the two preferred commutation channels for acquiring disaster information from among all the effective channels in all the stages.

Keywords: crisis stage analysis theory; earthquake disaster; information deviation index; information preference; risk communication.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of study area. Note: The red spot in Jilin province indicates the epicenter of the earthquake swarm. The shaded part is the survey area.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Information expected to be acquired by the public in the prodromal stage of an earthquake disaster.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Information actually acquired by the public in the prodromal stage of an earthquake disaster.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Information expected to be acquired by the public in the acute stage of an earthquake disaster.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Information actually acquired by the public in the acute stage of an earthquake disaster.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Information expected to be acquired by the public in the chronic stage of an earthquake disaster.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Information actually acquired by the public in the chronic stage of an earthquake disaster.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Information expected to be acquired by the public in the resolution stage of an earthquake disaster.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Information actually acquired by the public in the resolution stage of an earthquake disaster.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Main information composition in the different stages of an earthquake disaster.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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