Effects of media information on collective resilience in a disaster—A case study of the crisis of stranded commuters in Tokyo during the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake

This article examines the relations between media information and collective resilience—collective solidarity behaviours that emerge from a crowd—in a disaster. It uses the crisis of stranded commuters in Tokyo during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake as a case study with data collected from an original survey. Using a cluster analysis and a multinomial logistic regression, it is found that media information is positively related to the characteristics of collective resilience, such as shared identity and mutual help. Specifically, among those who felt threatened by the disaster, people who had received more information from media, particularly from social media and mobile telephones, were more likely to display higher levels of these characteristics. It is contended that this is because media information can help people to feel more empowered and, thus, more willing to interact with and help others.