Information inequality in climate disasters: evidence from the 2024 floods in Porto Alegre - Brazil
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2026-01-26
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Cunha, Maria Alexandra Viegas Cortez da
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This research analyzes information inequality during climate emergencies by examining the 2024 floods in Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It adopts a processual strategy inspired by temporal bracketing and is guided by a dual framework that combines Kim and Kim’s (2001) multidimensional model of the digital divide with theories of public action, communication infrastructure and civic co-production. The study investigates how public institutions, journalists and community actors shaped information flows across the pre-disaster, during-disaster and post-disaster phases. By examining how accessibility, utilization and receptiveness shifted under conditions of systemic stress, the study shows that information inequalities were not static. They changed with the crisis, but their root causes remained linked to structural conditions, institutional design and uneven visibility of different publics. The findings also show that the three dimensions proposed by Kim and Kim (2001) and do not account for the full range of practices observed in the field. In all phases of the crisis, besides accessing and using information, actors also produced, validated and shared it through temporary civic architectures, distributed guardianship and collective management of informational commons. These practices sustained coordination and supported public action when formal infrastructures faltered. By documenting how information was co-produced under extreme conditions, the study proposes the inclusion of production as an analytical dimension to better capture how local ecosystems function during emergencies. While academic debates on information inequality are shaped largely by Global North contexts, this study provides empirical evidence from the Global South and highlights the dynamics that emerge when formal systems are unable to meet local informational needs. The research contributes to the design of public policies that strengthen local information ecosystems and support the co-production of information as a public good.