Connectivity

Connectivity appeared as an underlying activity in every stages of the crisis response process (i.e., observation, interpretation, choice, and dissemination). However, the purpose of connectivity was different in each stages for the incident-related actors, digital participants, and journalists. Additionally, there were also various platforms utilized by the participants to have

DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.006.2018.F05 social connections with their family members, friends, colleagues, and also the weak ties, like their social media friends.

For the incident-related actors, it was necessary to maintain connections with their close-ties, for instance family members and friends, for various purposes. In most stages, they used mobile instant messengers, such as WhatsApp and Line, while some also utilized open social media platforms like Facebook. During the observation phase, they connected to their family members and friends to gain initial and further crisis information. For I1 who was having dinner outside when the bomb exploded, she might not notice that there was a bombing attack nearby her home if her boyfriend and other friends did not contact and inform her. I7 who was nearby the location of the bombing also relied on her friends to acquire information as she perceived her friends as credible information source, “My friends are credible. They do not share random information. If it’s a group (WhatsApp group chats) that I don’t know, the group with strangers, I won’t (believe). So, I believe them, I directly believe them.” On the interpretation phase, the incident-related actors discussed with their friends and family members about the occurrence via mobile instant messengers in order to make sense and verify the information that they had. For instance, I3 discussed with her friends about the incident through Line group chat and they compared the articles that they found. Once she found that most articles contained similar information, she was convinced about the validity of the information. Moving to the choice stage, the incident-related actors interact with their family members and friends via mobile instant messengers to brainstorm the best solutions in response to the terrorist attack. Lastly, the incident-related actors shared the information regarding the event and their own condition to their family members and friends during the dissemination stage. By sharing these information, they could make their inner circle less worried, besides they also could warn people to avoid the impact of

DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.006.2018.F05 the bombing attack. Media also played an important role to help the incident-related actors distribute the information. For I6 who had many friends from outside Indonesia, Facebook’s crisis response feature helped her to inform those friends about her condition instantly.

In contrast with the incident-related actors, the digital participants did not only connect to their close ties, but even more with their weak ties, for instance like-minded people encountered on social media. Therefore, the conversation channels that they had included social media, particularly Twitter, as well as mobile instant messengers, for instance WhatsApp. During the observation, the digital participants first knew about the incident from personal or group chats on WhatsApp and also when they browsed through their Twitter timeline as someone that they followed tweeted about the event. Digital participants also connected to their Twitter for finding information. Many of them considered Twitter as one of the fastest information channels during the terrorist attacks. They still used this platform regardless many fake news circulated in this platform. On the next stage, interpretation, the digital participants used Twitter to discuss about the incident as but they had many people with the same concern on Twitter. Aside from that, to check the accuracy of an information, D3 also stated that she compared many tweets on Twitter.

Information posted by many people was reliable for her and some other participants. Some also used WhatsApp during this stage, for instance, D1 who contacted his trustworthy friend to verify an information. On the choice stage, digital participants mostly focused on considering what to tweet in response to the terrorist attacks. D2 firstly discussed with his friends via WhatsApp group chats to talk about the hashtag and content they would like to tweet before they posted it on Twitter.

This was crucial for D2 because he believed that by having many people tweeted the same contents simultaneously, they could make bigger impact. On the last stage, dissemination, the digital participants also shared information through WhatsApp and other open social media platforms

DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.006.2018.F05 (e.g., Twitter). They thought it was important to make people surrounding them aware with this issue and therefore they could avert from the negative impact.

During the observation phase, most journalists relied on WhatsApp group chats whose members were also journalists. These group chats played an important role for them. J1, an online journalist, mentioned that connections built through these group chats helped their work tremendously, especially in information gathering as they received many information on this channel, including press release or official statements from the authorities. On the interpretation stage, the journalists often discussed with their colleagues about the incident to get better understanding about the event. Through the discussion, they were exposed to various perspectives or they could also compare the information from different people. Because of the networks that they had, the journalists could also verify the information by contacting the authorities, for instance J5 used WhatsApp to personally contact the bus station officials in order to validate the information she had obtained. During the choice stage, the journalists, especially TV journalists, needed to maintain their connection with the editors before taking editorial decision. They used WhatsApp to connect to their editors as they were in the location while their editors monitored them from the office. On the dissemination stage, the journalists utilized WhatsApp to share the information to their colleagues. By doing so, the information cycle on the group chats could be maintained. In addition, the journalists also shared the information to their close ties, such as family members and friends. J3 also mentioned that she would like to clarify the wrong information spread in her family group chat on WhatsApp by supplying them verified information.

In sum, all three groups of participants went through every stage of the process, from observation, to interpretation, to choice, and finally, to dissemination. There are various activities and platforms used within the stages. Moreover, it was found that connectivity occurred in all

DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.006.2018.F05 stages of the crisis response communication process. There were various reasons of connectivity in each stages. Table 6 summarizes the process of the three groups.

Table 6

Summary of Crisis Response Communication Process

TV and Twitter TV and WhatsApp group chat for

Interpretation Comparison Comparing information from TV, online news portals, and social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) for gaining better understanding.

DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.006.2018.F05

Purposes To make others less worried about them