Media Coverage of Disasters

James Delli Gatti

 

Media Coverage of Disasters

Reference: Yell, S. (Nov2010) 'Breakfast is now tea, toast and tissues': Affect and the media coverage of bushfires. Media International Australia. 137, p109-119, 11p.

 

Theme: how the news media coverage can affect the public perspectives Immediately after a catastrophe.

Summary:

 

·         Social media platforms are much more widely used for the purpose of journalistic reporting allowing unprofessional journalists or reporters eg. Everyday citizens to report on incidents.

·         The daily management and routines of the incident management teams helped to influence the journalists coverage of the incident and affected what journalists decided to keep and omit from reports.

·         Journalistic reporting tends to be much more empathetic to the victims of wild fires and far more adversarial toward incident management and other emergency services.

·         The media is more likely to focus on the failures and misjudgments of the emergency services personnel rather than place the focus on the governmental policies that may be the root cause of citizen deaths.

Application to the lesson topic: The media has a wide range of influence and affect on the population during and immediately after an incident. How you handle the various types of news media personnel can make or break your ability to garner public support and to effectively relay critical and accurate information in a timely manner.

Application to emergency services: In an emergency situation such as brush fires it is imperative that you utilize the media in an organized and professional manner in order to efficiently and adequately communicate with the community that you serve on matters of safety, as well as to garner the communities support.