A study published in Nordicom
In April 2017, a truck drove at full speed through Drottninggatan in central Stockholm, killing five and injuring at least 15 people. The terrorist attack shook Sweden, and on Twitter tens of thousands of people opened up their homes to those in need of protection using the hashtag #openstockholm.
In a new study published in the scientific journal Nordicom Review, Minttu Tikka, a
Helped to increase security
The study shows that the communicative role that ordinary people have in crises and disasters has changed following the development of new digital technology. Instead of just witnessing events, citizens can now actively participate in crisis work by, for example, organising
– The response of ordinary people following the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan illustrates the active role of citizens in crisis situations. By opening up their homes on Twitter they helped to increase the safety of the public, and ultimately to increase the resilience of the society as a whole, Minttu Tikka says.
Rationality as an overarching theme
The study, which is based on a content analysis of the Twitter flow around the hashtag #openstockholm, also shows that the majority of tweets (71 percent) that were published focused on rational aspects of the event: they offered help or shared instructions and other important information with the public.
– It seems that people’s immediate response to a crisis is to strive to
The article Ritualisation of Crisis Communication: Crowd-enabled responses to the Stockholm terror attack on Twitter was written by Minttu Tikka and is published in Nordicom Review.