AN EXPLORATION OF INFORMATION QUALITY MEASURES OF ICTS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE 2008 XENOPHOBIC ATTACKSIN THE WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA

摘要

During the 2008 xenophobic attacks in South Africa, victims relied on various forms of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to obtain and spread information: mainstream media, micro-blogs and instant messaging. This paper investigates which ICTs 2008 xenophobic attacks mostly relied on and how they perceived the information quality of these ICTs. Dimensions of information quality investigated included accessibility, reputation, believability, interpretability, understandability, completeness, objectivity, and timeliness. From data gathered through interviews of victims of the 2008 xenophobic attacks, the research concludes that mainstream media, micro blogging and instant messaging applications are all influenced by the information quality dimensions but at different levels. Various factors impacting on the above-mentioned information quality dimensions have been described in the study. It is hoped that the findings would be useful to emergency responders while choosing the form of information channel to focus on at different times during a disaster response.