Disaster communication on the Internet: An Examination of 12 Disaster Relief Web Sites

Mary Jae Paul

This study employs content analysis to examine selected web sites containing disaster information. It develops a typology of disaster-relief information, including relief, recovery, preparation, general information and feature articles. This typology is intended to provide a useful frame of reference for practical use in disaster communication. Link and text on each site are examined for specificity and variety. In addition, content volume and subject among our domains, .com, .edu, .gov, and .org, are compared. Indication of differences in both subject specificity and volume were found between sites as well as domains.

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Mary Jae Paul is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This study was conducted in partial requirement for the completion of her Master of Science degree in Agricultural Journalism. The author wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Marion Brown, Craig Trumbo, and Garrett O'Keefe to this project.
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