Clearing the air: evaluating institutions’ social media health messaging on wildfire and smoke risks in the US Pacific Northwest
This research analyzed Twitter communications about wildfires and smoke from 2022 authored by institutional public health and environmental accounts in Washington and Oregon. This study compared Tweeting patterns over time, in connection with potential wildfire smoke exposure, and evaluated communications based on whether they encouraged the adoption of smoke-protective actions, informed the public about health risks, and promoted community-building.
Overall, they found that institutional Tweeting generally coincided with rising wildfire smoke levels, suggesting institutions tailored their messaging in response to potential population exposures to wildfire smoke. This research also found that accounts mostly used Twitter to promote smoke-related behavior change and used it less for the purposes of disseminating wildfire smoke risk information or promoting community-building