Grieving in the 21st Century: Social Media's Role in Facilitating Supportive Exchanges Following Community-Level Traumatic Events

Abstract

In the aftermath of a traumatic mass casualty event, a community's resources are strained, while its needs for tangible, emotional, and informational support are elevated. Social media may serve to bridge the distance between the locally affected community and those outside who are willing to offer support. This exploratory study uses Twitter as a lens for examining gratitude for support in the aftermath of disaster. We examine how social media may provide new opportunities for support to be exchanged and networks to be formed in the aftermath of a traumatic event. By analyzing tweets originating from Newtown, Connecticut after the school shooting, we identify and describe six categories of support exchanged through Twitter, including two categories (symbolic and role-based) that have not been extensively discussed in the social support literature -- but are valued by the community. Each type of support network shows distinct structural characteristics and temporal variance.