Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia

This paper proposes an ecological view to investigate how disparities in mobile technology use reflect vulnerabilities in communities vis‐à‐vis disaster preparedness. Data (n=1,603) were collected through a multi‐country survey conducted equally in rural and urban areas of Indonesia, Myanmar, Philip...

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Main Authors: Lai, Chih-Hui, Chib, Arul, Ling, Rich
Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/85918
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48247
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-859182020-03-07T12:15:50Z Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia Lai, Chih-Hui Chib, Arul Ling, Rich Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Digital Disparities Disaster Preparedness DRNTU::Social sciences::Communication This paper proposes an ecological view to investigate how disparities in mobile technology use reflect vulnerabilities in communities vis‐à‐vis disaster preparedness. Data (n=1,603) were collected through a multi‐country survey conducted equally in rural and urban areas of Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam, where mobile technology has become a dominant and ubiquitous communication and information medium. The findings show that smartphone users' routinised use of mobile technology and their risk perception are significantly associated with disaster preparedness behaviour indirectly through disaster‐related information sharing. In addition to disaster‐specific social support, smartphone users' disaster‐related information repertoires are another strong influencing factor. In contrast, non‐smartphone users are likely to rely solely on receipt of disaster‐specific social support as the motivator of disaster preparedness. The results also reveal demographic and rural–urban differences in disaster information behaviour and preparedness. Given the increasing shift from basic mobile phone models to smartphones, the theoretical and policy‐oriented implications of digital disparities and vulnerability are discussed. Accepted version 2019-05-17T02:15:33Z 2019-12-06T16:12:42Z 2019-05-17T02:15:33Z 2019-12-06T16:12:42Z 2018 Journal Article Lai, C.-H., Chib, A., & Ling, R. (2018). Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia. Disasters, 42(4), 734-760. doi:10.1111/disa.12279 0361-3666 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/85918 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48247 10.1111/disa.12279 en Disasters © 2018 The Author(s). All rights reserved. This paper was published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd in Disasters and is made available with permission of The Author(s). 43 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Digital Disparities
Disaster Preparedness
DRNTU::Social sciences::Communication
spellingShingle Digital Disparities
Disaster Preparedness
DRNTU::Social sciences::Communication
Lai, Chih-Hui
Chib, Arul
Ling, Rich
Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia
description This paper proposes an ecological view to investigate how disparities in mobile technology use reflect vulnerabilities in communities vis‐à‐vis disaster preparedness. Data (n=1,603) were collected through a multi‐country survey conducted equally in rural and urban areas of Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam, where mobile technology has become a dominant and ubiquitous communication and information medium. The findings show that smartphone users' routinised use of mobile technology and their risk perception are significantly associated with disaster preparedness behaviour indirectly through disaster‐related information sharing. In addition to disaster‐specific social support, smartphone users' disaster‐related information repertoires are another strong influencing factor. In contrast, non‐smartphone users are likely to rely solely on receipt of disaster‐specific social support as the motivator of disaster preparedness. The results also reveal demographic and rural–urban differences in disaster information behaviour and preparedness. Given the increasing shift from basic mobile phone models to smartphones, the theoretical and policy‐oriented implications of digital disparities and vulnerability are discussed.
author2 Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
author_facet Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Lai, Chih-Hui
Chib, Arul
Ling, Rich
format Article
author Lai, Chih-Hui
Chib, Arul
Ling, Rich
author_sort Lai, Chih-Hui
title Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia
title_short Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia
title_full Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia
title_fullStr Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia
title_full_unstemmed Digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in Southeast Asia
title_sort digital disparities and vulnerability : mobile phone use, information behaviour, and disaster preparedness in southeast asia
publishDate 2019
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/85918
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48247
_version_ 1681036588604194816