Information types and characteristics within the Wireless Emergency Alert in COVID-19: Focusing on Wireless Emergency Alerts in Seoul

The central and local governments of the Republic of Korea provided information necessary for disaster response through wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) in order to overcome the pandemic situation in which COVID-19 rapidly spreads. Among all channels for delivering disaster information, wireless emergency alert is the most efficient, and since it adopts the CBS(Cell Broadcast Service) method that broadcasts directly to the mobile phone, it has the advantage of being able to easily access disaster information through the mobile phone without the effort of searching. In this study, the characteristics of wireless emergency alerts sent to Seoul during the past year and one month (January 2020 to January 2021) were derived through various text mining methodologies, and various types of information contained in wireless emergency alerts were analyzed. In addition, it was confirmed through the population mobility by age in the districts of Seoul that what kind of influence it had on the movement behavior of people. After going through the process of classifying key words and information included in each character, text analysis was performed so that individual sent characters can be used as an analysis unit by applying a document cluster analysis technique based on the included words. The number of WEAs sent to the Seoul has grown dramatically since the spread of Covid-19. In January 2020, only 10 WEAs were sent to the Seoul, but the number of the WEAs increased 5 times in March, and 7.7 times over the previous months. Since the basic, regional local government were authorized to send wireless emergency alerts independently, the sending behavior of related to wireless emergency alerts are different for each local government. Although most of the basic local governments increased the transmission of WEAs as the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 increases, the trend of the increase in WEAs according to the increase in the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 was different by region. By using structured econometric model, the effect of disaster information included in wireless emergency alerts on population mobility was measured by dividing it into baseline effect and accumulating effect. Six types of disaster information, including date, order, online URL, symptom, location, normative guidance, were identified in WEAs and analyzed through econometric modelling. It was confirmed that the types of information that significantly change population mobility by age are different. Population mobility of people in their 60s and 70s decreased when wireless emergency alerts included information related to date and order. As date and order information is appeared in WEAs when they intend to give information about Covid-19 confirmed cases, these results show that the population mobility of higher ages decreased as they reacted to the messages reporting of confirmed cases of Covid-19. Online information (URL) decreased the population mobility of in their 20s, and information related to symptoms reduced the population mobility of people in their 30s. On the other hand, it was confirmed that normative words that including the meaning of encouraging compliance with quarantine policies did not cause significant changes in the population mobility of all ages. This means that only meaningful information which is useful for disaster response should be included in the wireless emergency alerts. Repeated sending of wireless emergency alerts reduces the magnitude of the impact of disaster information on population mobility. It proves indirectly that under the prolonged pandemic, people started to feel tired of getting repetitive WEAs with similar content and started to react less. In order to effectively use WEAs for quarantine and overcoming disaster situations, it is necessary to reduce the fatigue of the people who receive WEA by sending them only in necessary situations, and to raise awareness of WEAs.

코로나 19 하에서 재난문자 내의 정보유형 및 특성: 서울특별시 재난문자를 중심으로

대한민국 중앙부처, 지방자치단체는 코로나 19가 급속도로 확산하는 팬데믹 상황에서 재난상황 극복을 위해 재난대응에 필요한 정보를 재난문자를 통해 제공하였다. 재난문자는 국민들이 가장 많이 접하는 재난정보 전달수단으로서, 휴대폰에 직접 방송하는 CBS(Cell Broadcast Service) 방식을 채택하고 있어 직접 찾아보는 수고스러움 없이 휴대폰을 통해 쉽게 정보를 접할 수 있다는 장점이 있다. 본 연구는 지난 1년 1개월간(2020년 1월~2021년 1월) 서울특별시에 발송된 재난문자의 특성을 다양한 텍스트마이닝 방법론 등을 통해 도출하고 재난문자에 포함된 다양한 유형의 정보가 국민들의 이동 행태에 어떠한 영향을 미쳤는지를 서울특별시 지역구의 연령별 유동인구의 이동성을 통해 확인하였다. 각 문자에 포함된 주요 단어와 포함된 정보를 분류하는 과정을 거치고 포함된 단어를 기반으로 하는 문서 군집 분석 기법을 적용해 개별 발송 문자를 분석 단위로써 활용할 수 있도록 텍스트 분석을 시행하였다. 이후, 텍스트마이닝을 통해 추출한 재난문자의 특성이 지역별, 연령별 인구이동성에 미친 영향을 규명하였다. 구조화된 모형을 활용하여 재난정보가 인구이동성에 미치는 영향을 기본효과, 누적효과로 구분하여 측정하였다. 지자체가 보유한 재난문자 발송권한으로 인해 재난문자 발송 특성은 지자체별로 상이함을 계량 분석에 활용하였다. 분석 결과 인구이동성에 변화를 유발하는 정보유형은 연령별로 상이함을 확인할 수 있었다. 날짜와 순서에 관련된 정보는 60-70대의 인구이동성을 유의미하게 감소시키는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 온라인 정보는 20대의 이동성을 감소시켰고, 증상과 관련된 정보는 30대의 인구이동성을 감소시켰다. 한편, 방역 정책 준수를 당부하는 의미를 포함하는 규범적 단어 등은 전 연령의 인구이동성에 유의미한 변화를 불러일으키지 못함을 확인할 수 있었다. 이는 재난대응에 도움이 되는 유의미한 정보들만 재난문자에 포함되어야 함을 의미한다. 한편, 인구이동성에 유의미한 변화를 불러일으키는 정보유형 또한 재난문자가 반복됨에 따라 효과가 상쇄함을 음의 누적효과 추정 결과를 통해 확인할 수 있었다.