Abstract
Ethnic and racial minority communities often suffer more from disasters due to a lack of access to resources from governmental agencies and other organizations that provide disaster relief. To explore the role of social media in addressing this problem, this study investigates whether a popular social messaging application among the Chinese immigrant community, WeChat, helped victims of Harvey overcome the detrimental impacts of the hurricane. In particular, we compared Chinese Houstonians’ psychological well-being with other ethnic and racial minority groups in the region. Results indicate that Chinese WeChat users in Houston successfully utilized social capital and achieved stronger resilience as compared to other ethnic and racial groups.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2711-2729 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Natural Hazards |
Volume | 106 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2021 |
Keywords
- Disaster resilience
- Ethnic minority
- Immigrant
- Social capital
- Social media