From disorientation to preparedness: Information practices as scaffolding in acute crises

Abstract This qualitative study examines how adults in Israel enacted information practices during an acute national crisis. Using the information transitions framework, we investigate how concrete practices emerge and evolve across three stages: understanding, negotiating, and resolving. Semi‐structured Zoom interviews with 18 adults were analyzed via thematic analysis. Findings show a staged progression across four information practice types. Seeking shifts from checking whatever is closest at hand to more deliberate information seeking. Validation moves from “good enough” judgments to more careful checking of evidence, and eventually to relying on trusted sources. Sharing changes from broadly passing things along to more deliberate, protective communication with specific people and groups. Personal information management (PIM) develops from improvised or absent organizing to gathering key items in one place, preparing for contingencies, and building simple routines that keep the most important information easy to find. Across stages, these practices function as scaffolds for adaptation: supporting rapid orientation in the understanding stage, evaluation and coordination in the negotiating stage, and continuity and preparedness in the resolving stage. The study further validates and specifies the transitions research and offers guidance for improving crisis communication and preparing everyday information spaces.