Özet:

Communication opportunities offered by social media in natural disasters are of great importance for disaster management. Studies looking at the potential of social media in disaster situations highlight three general themes: ensuring the flow of information (Hughes & Palen, 2010; Palen vd., 2010; Vieweg vd., 2010), providing collaboration and solidarity (Eisman, 2016; Qu vd., 2016) and providing emotional support (Houston vd., 2015, Qu vd., 2016). This research seeks answers to the questions of how Twitter usage changed in the first hours of the disaster during the Kahramanmaraş earthquake of February 6, 2023, how Twitter was used during the earthquake disaster, and what functions it performed. The hashtags and words in the “Trending Topic” lists offered by Twitter for 48 hours following the earthquake were analyzed by thematic analysis method. The “Trending Topic” lists derived from from the Export Data site (https://www.exportdata.io/). The items in each list, whose number varies between 30-50, were classified according to their subjects by applying thematic coding with the help of the MAXQDA 2020 qualitative data analysis program. The topics have been determined as comprehensive titles as possible and divided into sub-codes. In the research, the thematic analysis stages described by Braun and Clarke (2006/2019) were followed. The data were analysed in detail, and the breakdown of all the hourly lists were examined. During the analysis, six main themes were determined as “Call for Help”, “Spiritual Invocation”, “Information”, “Criticism and Reaction”, “Cooperation and Solidarity”, “Emotional Support”. It has been detected that Twitter has been used as an emergency platform since the first hours after disaster, the information flow about the earthquake is very fast and the information obtained from other media tools can become widespread in Twitter very quickly. In this study, it was determined that Twitter offers a tremendous space for the flow of information from different sources during the disaster. In the first six hours after the earthquake occurred at 04:17, the words “Location Notification” were frequently encountered in the TT lists that changed hourly. Words and hashtags that give details about the earthquake and that there is an earthquake are at the top of the lists in the first six hours, but spiritual invocation, emotional support messages and emergency calls stand out in all of the lists. After the first 6 hours different types of calls for help have been identified and it has been determined that the words related to the “Criticism and Reaction” theme started to appear in the lists. Messages offering emotional support to the victims of the disaster and emphasizing unity and solidarity were published, particularly on the first day of the disaster. It was noted that Twitter was frequently used for support messages. Twitter has also become a platform where people reflect on their spiritual prayers and express their desires and prayers, as well as their physical and spiritual condition. The words and the hashtags related to the information about the disaster area and the names of the experts who provided information about the disaster were in the hourly lists of the first 24 hours. The TT lists of the second day often contained the names of celebrities who provided information about the catastrophe from the earthquake region, but here the sub-topic “Criticism and Politics” was the top priority. Suggestions on what to do in an earthquake, reactions to the measures taken, and emphasis on inadequately evaluated interventions are under the title of “Criticism and Politics”. Words related to emergency calls in the “Call for Help” category are common in the hourly lists on the second day. It can be observed that the reactions to the delay in aid are also increasing. On the second day, the sub-codes related to the theme of “Cooperation and Solidarity” were diversified. In addition to the calls for help, the help announcements have increased and the words related to the feedback about the aids have started to appear in the lists. Words that express the needs of earthquake victims have also started to appear more frequently in the lists. Calls for help are the most prominent theme in the TT lists covering both days. Here it is possible to observe the structure of Twitter that allows two-way dialogue between victims and volunteers. As a matter of fact, the theme of “Cooperation and Solidarity” also hosts the “Help Feedback” messages, especially on the second day. According to the results, it has been revealed that Twitter has a function that allows dialogue between the parties in disasters. Future research should do technical analysis, especially on the use of Twitter, using different methods. In this way, the numerical data obtained should be provided to illuminate the details of the use of social media in disasters.

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