Social media provides a digital space – a meeting place, for different people, often representing one or more groups in a society. The use of this space during a disaster, especially where information needs are high and the availability of factually accurate and ethically sourced data is scarce, has increased substantially over the last 5-10 years. This paper attempts to address communication i...

Flood risk management requires updated and accurate information about the overall situation in vulnerable areas. Social media messages are considered to be as a valuable additional source of information to complement authoritative data (e.g. in situ sensor data). In some cases, these messages might also help to complement unsuitable or incomplete sensor data, and thus a more complete descriptio...

Social networks have become the main infrastructure of today’s daily activities of people during the last decade. In these networks, users interact with each other, share their interests on resources and present their opinions about these resources or spread their information. Since each user has a limited knowledge of other users and most of them are anonymous, the trust factor plays an import...

The chapter investigates different sources of trust as factors affecting consumers’ willingness to provide companies with personal information and the permission to use it in mobile marketing. The chapter develops a conceptual model, which is tested with data from a survey of 200 young Finnish consumers. The data were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling (LISREL8.7). The main sourc...

Social media operates in the online environment, and the challenge is to enhance the end-user experience. The chapter asserts that the consumer experience and behaviour in the online (e.g. e-commerce) and offline environments have some commonality with social media. Building a successful brand online is a prerequisite for success, but fundamental to trusting brand beliefs is the ability to crea...

The AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) has initiated an important discussion on medical professionalism and the use of social media by issuing thoughtful and practical guidance for physicians and medical students. The implications of online activities for trust in the profession, as well as for trust between patient and doctor, however, will need further exploration as digital l...

Social media has changed the information landscape for a variety of events including natural disasters, demonstrations, and violent crises. During these events, people use a variety of social media, such as Twitter, to share information with the world. Given the massive amount of data generated, it is difficult to identify the valuable information in a sea of noise. In this study, we focus on a...