To observe students’ reactions to an emergency and how they use social media to communicate about it shortly after, this content analysis examines social media posts directly after a deadly stabbing that took place on The University of Texas at Austin campus in the Spring of 2017. A text-mining approach was used to analyze a total of 17,216 tweets and retweets posted within 48-hours after the attack. Approximately half of the tweets were news reports of the event, the remainder depicted unique reactions to the circumstances surrounding the stabbing. The most recurring topics to emerge were status updates on the situation, expressions of distrust for the mainstream media, theories about the motivation behind the attack, and inflammatory rumors of additional violent incidents nearby campus. The most influential Twitter profiles were operated by mainstream news outlets and included no official city or campus accounts. Now that individuals can access information online before officials even formulate a response, monitoring and leveraging social media sites like Twitter before and during an emergency can help identify and reduce the spread of misinformation. As social and mobile media continue to penetrate college campuses, we must examine how the dissemination of information shapes fact and fiction.

为了观察学生对紧急事件的反应以及他们不久后如何使用社交媒体进行沟通，本内容分析直接检查了2017年春季在德克萨斯大学奥斯汀校区发生的致命刺伤之后的社交媒体帖子。攻击后48小时内，使用文本挖掘方法分析了总共17,216条推文和转发。大约一半的推文是该事件的新闻报道，其余的则描述了对刺伤情况的独特反应。最经常出现的话题是有关局势的状态更新，对主流媒体的不信任表达，有关袭击背后动机的理论以及校园附近更多暴力事件的煽动性谣言。最具影响力的Twitter个人资料由主流新闻媒体运营，没有官方城市或校园帐户。现在，人们可以在官员甚至做出回应之前就可以在线访问信息，在紧急情况发生之前和期间，监视和利用Twitter等社交媒体网站可以帮助识别和减少错误信息的传播。随着社交和移动媒体继续渗透到大学校园中，我们必须检查信息的传播如何塑造事实和虚构。