TY - JOUR
T1 - Twitter as a Sentinel in Emergency Situations
T2 - Lessons from the Boston Marathon Explosions
AU - Cassa, Christopher A.
AU - Chunara, Rumi
AU - Mandl, Kenneth
AU - Brownstein, John S.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Immediately following the Boston Marathon attacks, individuals near the scene posted a deluge of data to social media sites. Previous work has shown that these data can be leveraged to provide rapid insight during natural disasters, disease outbreaks and ongoing conflicts that can assist in the public health and medical response. Here, we examine and discuss the social media messages posted immediately after and around the Boston Marathon bombings, and find that specific keywords appear frequently prior to official public safety and news media reports. Individuals immediately adjacent to the explosions posted messages within minutes via Twitter which identify the location and specifics of events, demonstrating a role for social media in the early recognition and characterization of emergency events. *Christopher Cassa and Rumi Chunara contributed equally to this work.
AB - Immediately following the Boston Marathon attacks, individuals near the scene posted a deluge of data to social media sites. Previous work has shown that these data can be leveraged to provide rapid insight during natural disasters, disease outbreaks and ongoing conflicts that can assist in the public health and medical response. Here, we examine and discuss the social media messages posted immediately after and around the Boston Marathon bombings, and find that specific keywords appear frequently prior to official public safety and news media reports. Individuals immediately adjacent to the explosions posted messages within minutes via Twitter which identify the location and specifics of events, demonstrating a role for social media in the early recognition and characterization of emergency events. *Christopher Cassa and Rumi Chunara contributed equally to this work.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84879771223&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84879771223&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/currents.dis.ad70cd1c8bc585e9470046cde334ee4b
DO - 10.1371/currents.dis.ad70cd1c8bc585e9470046cde334ee4b
M3 - Article
C2 - 23852273
AN - SCOPUS:84879771223
SN - 2157-3999
JO - PLoS Currents
JF - PLoS Currents
IS - JUNE
M1 - ecurrents.dis.ad70cd1c8bc585e9470046cde334ee4b
ER -