Examining the Links Between Information Sufficiency, News Preferences, and Protective Behavior During Hurricane Ian

ABSTRACT

Natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes are global occurrences affecting countries, counties, and communities. These extreme weather events can cause feelings of uncertainty and produce a range of high consequence outcomes. As a result, individuals can be expected to seek out information to further understand how they will be impacted. With Hurricane Ian as the focus, this study examined the impact of source preferences on protective behaviors, while evaluating their relationship with information sufficiency. Florida residents living in counties impacted by Hurricane Ian completed an online survey in the weeks following landfall. Source preference assessed reliance on various news outlets and yielded three factors: high reliability, low reliability, and traditional media. While none predicted the likelihood of mitigation, overall reliance on all three correlated with likelihood of evacuation. Furthermore, residents who expressed information insufficiency spent more time seeking information and were more reliant on traditional media. The findings contribute to our understanding of news use and preferences before a natural disaster, along with their impact on likelihood of evacuation and mitigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisis communication
• risk communication
• media dependency
• natural disasters

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation [NSF 2303097].

Notes on contributors

Kenneth A. Lachlan

Ken Lachlan (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is Professor and Head of the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. Recent research has examined the processing of crisis and risk information in the context of natural disasters and other cataclysmic events.

James DiCairano

James DiCairano (M.A., William Paterson University) is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. His research interests involve persuasion with a focus on politics, seeking to understand how we can use media (digital and traditional) to create a more engaged and informed electorate.

Christine Gilbert

Christine Gilbert (Ph.D., University of Connecticut) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Journalism and School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University. Her area of research includes crisis and risk communication, science communication, and climate communication.