There is a growing body of research aiming to integrate social scientific findings and methodological expertise into the development of capabilities to support an analysis of Social Media (SM) within different areas, including education [1], scientific collaboration [2], business [3], humanitarian assistance [4], and disaster and emergency communication [5]. This paper aims to explore how social science can contribute to the development of tools enabling an analysis of Social Media as a source of data on public opinions, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations in the case of natural disaster.
Social Media is characterised by the heterogeneity of genres and modes in which documentary evidences of disaster can be presented, the polyphony of perspectives, uncertainty in regard to whose voices are authoritative and influential, interactional dynamics, multiplication of content, spatio-temporal complexity, and decontextualisation and recontextualisation of information. Analysis of SM in disaster requires tools that help revealing the entire variety of conceptual frameworks employed by social actors in order to justify their actions and their attitudes towards proposed decisions and changes.
Based on historical, sociological, and anthropological studies of natural disasters [6, 7], this paper outlines three areas in which social sciences can inform the development of analytic capabilities: the analysis of heterogeneous data sources; conceptual models of sociocultural contexts relevant from the perspective of risk and vulnerability; and of cultural resources that may shape coping strategies.

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[5] Resnyansky, L. 2014, ‘Social media, disaster studies, and human communication’, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 33(1): 54-65.
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[7] Oliver-Smith, A & Hoffman, SM (eds) 1999 The angry earth: Disaster in anthropological perspective, Routledge, New York, London, pp. 1-16