Stronger together: cultivating a sense of community in virtual communities during disasters

Purpose The presence of unverifiable, inaccurate, and irrelevant information during disasters can encourage people to withdraw from virtual communities. One way to combat this problem is to cultivate a sense of community. However, little is known about how a sense of community can be fostered quickly in virtual communities during a disaster. Our study addresses this limitation of prior research work. Design/methodology/approach We conducted an in-depth qualitative case study of a Reddit community during Hurricane Harvey. The main sources were archival data, including community threads and associated comments. Data from newspapers, magazine reports and government websites were also collected to capture contextual information about the disaster. Findings Our findings indicate that socialisation and formal control can foster a sense of community. This is made possible through the strategic use of social media, which involves (1) endorsing emergent norms and (2) enforcing those norms through a disciplining process. Practical implications We offer practical suggestions for virtual community moderators and members on strategically using social media features to create, enforce and institutionalise emergent norms. We recommend that system designers develop adaptable social media features that can be reconfigured according to the context. Originality/value We show how socialisation and formal control must coexist in virtual communities to foster a sense of community, rather than prioritising one over the other. We also unpack how the strategic use of social media can inform this process. We argue that social media features should be adaptable, rather than pre-set, to meet emergent needs.