Online Debates During Crisis: the Case of Twitter Use During the 2019 Human Body Dropping From Aircraft at Heathrow

Abstract

This study presents an evaluation of online debate during crisis with specific focus on the use of Twitter during 2019 human body dropping from an aircraft at Heathrow Airport. The study aimed at three objectives which were: to find out the dynamics of Twitter debates during crisis, find out how the crisis involving a human body dropping off a plane at Heathrow was debated on Twitter and to find out the effectiveness of Twitter as a communication platform during the crisis. The assessment is based on a data set obtained from 3,000 tweets over a period of 10 days. Content analysis was used to make sense of the data. Findings suggest a heavily distorted activity distribution among users that favor a small core comprising of five groups with varying patterns of use. Looking at Twitter as a platform for online debates during crisis, the researcher concludes that even though Twitter’s impact is very small, it nevertheless comes across as a critical platform for engaging in online debates during crisis situation. The recommendation is that Twitter as a new media platform be considered as a catalyst for debates on diverse matters including crisis. However, there is need to further conduct in-depth analysis of Twitter as an online platform for debates during crisis situation.