Data gathering happed a few hours after the first media report. Monitoring of official and unofficial news reports began. The information gained led to the monitoring of student-based information gained from student and college websites and social media.
 
Face-to-face individual and group interviews began five days after the event.

Data Sources In Crisis Communication: Virginia Tech 

Communication between those involved and those who were not, happened simultaneously online and on-site. The conversations influence each other as information is spread about. Thus it's important to analyze the connection or relationship these two forms of communication have.

Albion College

Quick response research is deployed by disaster social scientists. QRR consists of face-to-face interviews, direct observations, gathering field documents, and capturing images that are all related to the disaster and the direct/involved public response to it. 

Quick Response Research (QRR)

Palen, L., S. Vieweg, J. Sutton, S.B. Liu & A. Hughes (2007). Crisis Informatics: Studying Crisis in a Networked World. Third International Conference on e-Social Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 7-9, 2007.

Crisis Informatics: Studying Crisis in a Networked World

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has influenced disaster studies as new technology has allowed for new ways/forms of communication. The platforms created allow individuals to learn about the disaster in real-time. These platforms allow individuals from all over to communicate and provide support or aid. These communications being put online allow disaster researchers the ability to gather more information/data.

Information and Communication Technology

On April 16, 2007, a shooter killed 32 people in a two-and-a-half-hour period. The shooting happened in two different buildings. 
Researchers focused on studying the communication that arose because of the shooting as well as the information networks that the communication traveled.

Virginia Tech Shooter

Crisis Communications

The lines between the stages are blurred and behaviors described by one stage can happen simultaneously with behaviors described by another.

1. Pre-disaster
2. Warning
3. Threat
4. Impact
5. Inventory
6. Rescue
7. Remedy
8. Recovery

Eight Socio-Temporal Stages of Disaster

The study plan was developed during the study. The study evolved with the disaster and the type of information that could be found. 
A major challenge is just figuring out where to look to gain the information as the internet is a vast place. 
Another challenge is matching up the online and on-site actions regarding time as online activities are normally time-stamped and can happen at greater speeds than on-site communication and actions during a disaster. 

Learn Before

Related

Learn After