Streaming disasters on TikTok: Examining social mediated crisis communication, public engagement, and emotional responses during the 2023 Maui wildfire

Short video-sharing platforms, such as TikTok, play a significant role in allowing the public to experience natural disasters vicariously, share information, and coordinate peer-led disaster relief efforts. With emerging platforms like TikTok providing experientially immersive content, the role of digital storytelling in stimulating public engagement and emotions remains underexplored. Drawing from narrative persuasion theory and visual storytelling literature, the current study proposes an integrated framework to examine the storyteller, visual frame, and digital presentation characteristics of TikTok videos in predicting social-mediated public engagement and emotional reactions surrounding a recent natural disaster, the 2023 Maui Wildfire. Using visual content analysis and computational methods, the study analyzed 526 TikTok videos and 59,950 associated comments. Results showed that audiovisual vividness consistently predicted all three types of disaster engagement. In contrast, storyteller type, storytelling frame, and other presentation characteristics inconsistently predicted information consumption intention, information sharing intention, and emotional reactions on TikTok. •This study proposes a theory-informed framework of social media public engagement specific to the disaster context.•We investigate how digital storytelling stimulates public engagement and emotions on TikTok during the 2023 Maui Wildfire.•Combining visual content analysis and computational methods, we analyzed 526 TikTok videos and 59,950 associated comments.•Key storyteller, visual frame, and visual strategies significantly predicted information engagement and emotional coping.•Our results have important implications for public relations practitioner to create engaging disaster narratives.