The use of collaborative media in societal crises – towards a conceptual framework

The COVID-19 pandemic and environmental crisis are examples of long-lasting crisis situations that challenge everyday life as we know it. Based on a set of user studies, this paper suggests an initial conceptual framework for the use of collaborative media in societal crises. News and social media construct crisis awareness and a sense of crisis that, in turn, may channel into media-enabled collaborative activities. These activities occur in a socio-technical shaker, setting the boundaries for crisis collaboration. After all, the activities grow into use purposes including collaborative crisis intelligence, collaborative crisis action, and collaborative crisis adaptation. The suggested conceptual framework sheds light on the role of collaborative media in a broader hybrid media environment, increases understanding about organizing and maintaining collaborative activities by seizing the opportunities and tackling the constraints of collaborative media, and clarifies collaborative media use purposes in crisis settings.