Lesson 2 Reading Summary: Divergence of Duty

Reading Summary 2:

Jeff Neal, Sept. 12, 2013

Reference: Hindman, Elizabeth Blanks (1999), Divergence of Duty: Difference in legal and Ethical Responsibilities. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, vol.14 issue 4, p213

Theme: Although law and ethics intertwine and often share vocabulary, they are different.  

Summary:

·         The ATF was investigating the Davidians, a religious group known as the Branch Davidians, for  possession of weapons and potential gun law violations. The Davidians lived on a 70 acre compound in Waco Texas. The ATF (Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) planned and set a target date for the arrest of Koresh and search of the compound.

·         In addition the Waco Tribune-Herald newspaper was investigating Koresh the Davidians' leader and planned a seven-part series, discussing allegations of child sexual abuse and concerns that authorities were doing nothing.

·         On February 28, 1993 the ATF raided the compound and a shootout between the Davidians and agents from the ATF began.  When it was over, four federal agents and a number of Davidians dead, and more wounded. The standoff lasted 51 days.  Over this time more than 75 Davidians  and ATF agents were killed, and more were wounded.

·         Hindman stated that the shootout began a series of legal and ethical discussions about the local media's role in the initial shootout, culminating in an SPJ Waco Task Force report and over 100 lawsuits--later combined into a single case--claiming the media's negligence caused the injuries and deaths of the ATF agents.

·         ATF and Tribune-Herald officials of Waco met many times to discuss what was happening.  The ATF requested that the media delay their publication and TV series several times over the 51 days, but the media refused to delay the publication.  The media reviled when the raids would take place, and other important information about the ATFD activities.  The release of the information was being watched by the Davidians which gave them all the information they needed to prepare for the ATF raid.

·         The ATF argued that the Medias release of information about the raid caused the death and injury to the agents in the raid. The law at issue in this case is of negligence, "failure to exercise that degree of care which a person of ordinary prudence would exercise under the same circumstances".

Application to the lesson topic: The media can act within the law but not act ethically.   This article addresses what cause the shooting in Waco Texas, in 1993. The media played a major role in what happens.  They did not break the law but acted unethically and their actions which caused harm and contributed to the agents and Davidians that were shoot that day.  The media violated their ethical duty to minimize harm.  The AFT should have controlled what they released to the media and done a better job of maintain security of information.

Application to emergency services: It's important that we remember that the media has a different objective when they respond to an incident.  They are there to get a good story.  They will at times do whatever necessary to accomplish their goal.  We can control this by keeping a secure scene and establishing a perimeter around the scene allowing only emergency service personnel in the area.  Since the new Hipaa act of 1996 was established, it is even more important that we use care in what is told to the media. The hipaa act prevents emergency responders from sharing personal information of patients and gives us the right to withhold information about patients.

The Role of the Media and Media Hypes in the Aftermath of Disasters

The Role of the Media and Media Hypes in the Aftermath of Disasters

Reading Summary #1 ESMG 4200

Jeff Neal

References: 

Vasterman, Peter, Yzermans,  Joris and Dirkzwager, Anja. (2004). The Role of the Media and Media Hypes in the Aftermath of Disasters. Oxford Journals, Volume 27,  Issue 1, p.  107-114,  http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/1/107.full

Theme: This article discusses the affect the media has no the health of a community following a disaster.  Many times the health of a community decreases due to the mass amount of media attention to the disaster. And many people that were not affected by the disaster are affected by the media.

Summary: There are more disasters today then every in History because there are more people.  If an earthquake hit North America in the year 1500 no one would know about it.  It may have happened but no one was around to document it. The media plays a major role in public policy today.  Emergency service workers cannot do anything without a mass amount of media coverage.  This media coverage not only affects policy's it affects the health of a community following a disaster.  According the Vasterman the media uses keywords like disaster, hystia, health concerns, and plays events over and over again following an incident. This repeated use of keywords combined with long term coverage of an event is detrimental to a community.  Studies conducted by Vasterman and his associates examined hundreds of articles and media coverage and found that this repeated use of words and repeated coverage of a disaster caused the public health to decrease. One example of this was the 911.  The media played the images of 911 over and over, repeating the same images of the aircraft hitting the world trade center.  This media coverage is believed to have caused the  "Manhattan cough" and "World Trade Center syndrome".  Patients that had no exposure to 911, and worked in areas with good air quality still complained of these two health issues following 911.  When looking at all disasters Vasterman stated that not only did the health of a community decrease but the number of visits to the local health clinics and hospitals increased drastically.  The Medias effect on communities is evident, and according to this article media coverage of disasters may be doing more harm than good. As emergency responders we need to be aware of the negative affect media has on our community.

Application to the lesson topic: As emergency service providers we need not only be prepared for a disaster but we also need to be prepared for the media impact on the community after the disaster.  Our call volume will increase and the public will be at a higher level of awareness. 

Application to emergency services:  I saw the impact of the media related to anthrax while I was working for Salt Lake City Fire.  We had an Anthrax incident in a business, and the media coverage was extreme.  Following this event the media coverage cause the public to be at a high level of awareness. Any time a letter or box with white powder was found we were called in on a possible anthrax problem.  We would respond and evacuate the building or post office, call in hazmat and then wait while until the substance was identified.  99% of the responses ended in a false report, the substances were not anthrax.  During this time we also responded on numerous patients claiming to have been exposed to anthrax. This run of anthrax calls was cause by the media.