Wildfire Information Ecosystems and Political Polarization
Wildfire communication now unfolds in a digital environment shaped by political identity, engagement ranking, and polarized online communities. This project studies how these structural conditions influence institutional trust during crises.
Technical innovation
Using more than 1.3 million California wildfire posts from 2016–2025, the research combines actor-specific stance analysis, longitudinal social-network modeling, community detection, and engagement-weighted visibility measures.
Practical insight
Operational agencies and political officials occupy different reputational positions, particularly during extreme events. Emergency communication strategies should therefore account for who is speaking, how platform amplification redistributes attention, and where negative content concentrates within cohesive communities.