iSchool Professor Robert Mason and the SoMeLab team, along with HCDE Assistant Professor Kate Starbird, have received an NSF RAPID grant for $73,000 to explore social media use and networks in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing in April.

The project, entitled Social Media: Learning from the Boston Marathon Bombing, will address research questions concerning the social media paths and mechanisms through which information about the event traveled, how people mobilized to share information, and how information flows and mobilization for this event differs from similar flows and mobilization around natural disaster events.

Researchers will focus on Twitter data and tweets related to Boston and the bombing as a starting point and will examine several datasets, including one set of over 9 million tweets related to Boston and the bombing with collection beginning within an hour after the news broke.

Results from analysis may assist future researchers who look at communication and information flows in crises and disasters (whether natural or human-initiated).