Bridging Authority and Citizens: An Integrated Framework of Social-mediated Disaster Communication

Existing research on disaster communication largely focuses on governments, mainstream media, and citizens, while overlooking entertainment-driven actors such as social media influencers and community fan pages. This study examines how disasters are reframed when narrated by storytellers rooted in entertainment culture. Drawing on Rhetorical Arena Theory and Narrative Transportation Theory, the study analyzes 2,712 Facebook posts and 140,227 comments related to Typhoon Yagi in 2024. Qualitative thematic analysis and quantitative regression are used to understand how informal media actors (influencers, entertainment-oriented community fan pages) reproduce, extend, and emotionally reframe official messages. The results show that government agencies and the press play the role of “information legitimizers” while community fan pages and influencers function as new “intermediary actors” that reshape disaster discourse through intimate, humorous, or emotional storytelling. The study demonstrates the co-creation of discourse between citizens and governments and proposes a multi-layered model of disaster communication on social media.