From information behaviors to disaster preparedness: Navigating individuals' general and disaster curation in U.S., China, and Australia

Curation is the process where one finds ways to search, filter, interpret, and share the message content. Such process is dynamically enacted within one's mediated and non-mediated social operating systems. Integrating and extending the frameworks of curation, this study examines the foundation, processes, and effects of personal curation in the context of disaster management. Results based on a multi-country survey in the United States, China, and Australia showed that the use of social media and mobile devices laid an important foundation of individuals' personal curation, which include consumptive (information gathering) and productive (information sharing) curation. Moreover, personal curation in normal times consistently predicted personal curation practiced during disasters, which in turn facilitated disaster preparedness. The conceptual model of personal curation was confirmed in all three countries in spite of variations in cultural and disaster situations. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in ways to advance research on contemporary curation and adaptive behaviors.