Lucia Castro Herrera

Tilknyttet UiA

Faculty of Social Sciences

Email: lucia.c.herrera@uia.no
Phone: +47 38141767

Office H1073 (Universitetsveien 25, 4630 Kristiansand, Norway)

Research groups

Areas of responsibility

Lucia is a PhD candidate at the Information Systems department at the University of Agder, Norway. She holds an MSc. In Engineering Management with a concentration in Crisis, Emergency and Risk Management from The George Washington University, and a BA in Government and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia. Her research interests include crisis, disaster and risk management, social media in the context of crisis communications, logistics, and process improvement. Apart from academia, Lucia counts with professional experience in process improvement and emergency management with international, private, and public organizations in multicultural and multidisciplinary environments.

Her research explores the organizational practice around information collection from social media in the context of crises. This practice, known as social media listening/monitoring, has become increasingly important in emergency management and is an emerging research interest in the Information Systems discipline.

The main objective of the project is to understand how these social media listening practices are configured within crisis management strategies and their potential for future improvement.

Social media listening is understood as gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, and reporting information harvested from social media in crisis management operations before, during, and after crises.

Research

Crisis, disaster and risk management, social media in the context of crisis communications, logistics, and process improvement.

Tuition

IS-112 Service Design and Business Development

IS-214 Infomration Systems Security

Andreassen, Jarl; Eileraas, Martin; Herrera, Lucia Castro & Noori, Nadia Saad (2023). InCReASE: A dynamic framework towards enhancing situational awareness in cyber incidence response. In Gjøsæter, Terje; Radianti, Jaziar & Murayama, Yuko (Ed.), Information Technology in Disaster Risk Reduction. Springer. ISSN 978-3-031-34207-3. p. 230–243. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-34207-3_15.
Herrera, Lucia Castro; Shahbazi, Maryam; Majchrzak, Tim A.; Gjøsæter, Terje & Bunker, Deborah (2023). Attributes of Continuity in Support Information Systems: A Study of Social Media Listening Experiences. In Midha, Vishal & Animesh, Animesh (Ed.), The 29th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS). Association for Information Systems (AIS). ISSN 978-1-958200-05-6.
Herrera, Lucia Castro; Gjøsæter, Terje; Majchrzak, Tim A. & Thapa, Devinder (2023). Signals of Transition in Crisis Management: Insights from a Study of Social Media Use in Public Service Organizations . In Bui, Tung X. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 56thAnnual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. HICSS Conference Office. ISSN 978-0-9981331-6-4. p. 1758–1767. Show summary
In crisis informatics, little attention is placed on how transitions occur between periods of crisis and non-crisis. The analysis of transition behaviors in organizations could respond to both the cyclicality of risk and crisis management, and the need for continuity of services provided to the community. In studying transitions, we focus on social media use as a support system. Thus, with the objective to gain an insight into how sociotechnical systems navigate through periods of crisis and non-crisis, we leverage individual experiences that rely on social media as a source of information in public service organizations and developers of social media analytics support tools. The main contribution of this study is the explanation and conceptualization on how transitions happen by framing social media as a support system of information for crisis management. In addition, we highlight the return to a new steady-state, an overlooked area of organizational transitions and continuity.
Herrera, Lucia Castro & Gjøsæter, Terje (2023). Leveraging Crisis Informatics Experts: A co-creating approach for validation of social media research insights. In Radianti, Jaziar; Dokas, Ioannis; LaLone, Nicolas & Khazanchi, Deepak (Ed.), 20th Global Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Conference (ISCRAM 2023). ISCRAM. ISSN 979-8-218-21749-5. p. 439–448. Show summary
Validation of findings is a challenge in practice-based research. While analysis is being conducted and findings are being constructed out of data collected in a defined period, practitioners continue with their activities. This issue is exacerbated in the field of crisis management, where high volatility and personnel turnover make the capacity to attend research demands scarce. Therefore, conducting classic member validation is logistically challenging for the researcher. The need for rigor and validity calls for alternative mechanisms to fulfill requirements for academic research. This article presents an approach for validation of results of a qualitative study with public organizations that use social media as a source of information in the context of crisis management. The unavailability of original interview-objects to validate our findings resulted in an alternative validation method that leveraged experts in crisis informatics. By presenting our approach, we contribute to encouraging rigor in qualitative research while maintaining the relationship between practice and academia.
Herrera, Lucia Castro & Gjøsæter, Terje (2022). Community Segmentation and Inclusive Social Media Listening. Proceedings of the International ISCRAM Conference. ISSN 2411-3387. p. 1012–1023. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Social media analytics provide a generalized picture of situational awareness from the conversations happening among communities present in social media channels that are that are, or risk being affected by crises. The generalized nature of results from these analytics leaves underrepresented communities in the background. When considering social media analytics, concerns, sentiment, and needs are perceived as homogenous. However, offline, the community is diverse, often segmented by age group, occupation, or language, to name a few. Through our analysis of interviews from professionals using social media as a source of information in public service organizations, we argue that practitioners might not be perceiving this segmentation from the social media conversation. In addition, practitioners who are aware of this limitation, agree that there is room for improvement and resort to alternative mechanisms to understand, reach, and provide services to these communities in need. Thus, we analyze current perceptions and activities around segmentation and provide suggestions that could inform the design of social media analytics tools that support inclusive public services for all, including persons with disabilities and from other disadvantaged groups.
Herrera, Lucia Castro (2021). Configuring Social Media Listening Practices in Crisis Management. In Adrot, Anouck; Grace, Rob; Moore, Kathleen & Zobel, Christopher W. (Ed.), ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings - 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. ISCRAM Association. ISSN 978-1-949373-61-5.
Herrera, Lucia Castro; Majchrzak, Tim A. & Thapa, Devinder (2021). Principles for the Arrangement of Social Media Listening Practices in Crisis Management. In Yildirim Yayilgan, Sule; Bajwa, Imran Sarwar & Sanfilippo, Filippo (Ed.), Proceeding of the 3rd International Conference on Intelligent Technologies and Applications (INTAP). Springer. ISSN 978-3-030-71711-7.
Herrera, Lucia Castro; Majchrzak, Tim A. & Thapa, Devinder (2021). Ecosystem of Social Media Listening Practices for Crisis Management. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). ISSN 0302-9743. 12896, p. 710–722. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-85447-8_59. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
The benefits of using social media data as a source of information are recognized by both practice and research in crisis management. However, the existing understanding on the matter is fragmented, it oscillates between techno-determinisms and socio-determinisms, which does not provide a holistic picture. In this paper we argue that to better adapt social media data use practices, an ecosystem perspective is needed. In doing so, we conducted a systematic literature review and identified the various entities and their interrelationships that configure the practices of social media listening for crisis management. Then, we summarize our findings by proposing a conceptual ecosystem of practice. Finally, we suggest its implications for future research and practice.

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Garmann-Johnsen, Niels Frederik; Herrera, Lucia Castro & Liyanapathiranage, Sudeepika (2022). Teaching Design Thinking: Challenge-based Learning (presentation of work in progress).

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Published Apr. 16, 2024 11:34 AM