The Media, Disasters, and Aid Essay

The chapters (5-7) of Timothy Sellnow and Matthew Seeger’s book, Theorizing Crisis Communication, discusses the theories of communication (or human nature) in relation to emergency response as well as the strengths and weaknesses of different theories. In their writings, the assumptions that guide the emergency response approaches to communications are stuck in the basic problem of communication during a crisis to elicit the wanted response. If the emergency manager was not to be able to persuade the public to take specific actions to minimize harm, such as evacuating an area due to potential flooding/fires/fallout from an accidental man-made disaster, the casualty/fatality count would go up exponentially. By utilizing all forms of available communication, radio, television, landline and cellular phones, ham radios, etc., to reach and persuade the public can be overwhelming involving “consideration of audience characteristics, available channels and the larger social and crisis context” to facilitate the natural responses by haring important information throughout the planning, mitigation, response, and rebuilding. (Sellnow & Seeger 2013, 107-108).

Mass media have a prominent role to play in modern society. The use of the media can bring about unexpected changes and improve the social situation as it impact our social, civil, cultural, political,economic and aesthetic outlook. Modernization has transformed media into a crucial feature of human activity. In today's society, media influence issues such as the impact of global warming, genetic engineering, deployment of military forces, religion, government spending, nuclear testing and environmental legislations. The rise in the media has influenced international policy and decision within the government. It is now more critical than ever that policy planners understand the factors that encourage negative domestic reactions. Growing international concerns have prompted many to establish, or consider establishing postings in allied countries, and future deployments of this type are currently being

Tragic events that cause damage to property and life may destroy the social, cultural and economic life of a community. Communities must be engaged in the various phases from prevention to recovery to build disaster resilient communities. In order to do this, there must be a disaster preparedness plan in place that involves multiple people in various roles.

In doing so, the Federal government should confirm that Executive Branch agencies are prepared, skilled, and equipped to achieve their response positions. Confirm and apply the National Preparedness Goal. Officials at all levels did not comprehend what was occurring, did not originally communicate serious information, did not immediately establish the response effort, did not continuously take required resourcefulness and did not work successfully with the broadcasting to get the evidences to the community and its

When there is a disaster like this, the media expects a lot of looting, lack of response to the disaster, victims in need of rescue, and even death. But if the media

Approaching and following major catastrophic events, it is crucial to have communication plans set in place for the community. Communication during disasters helps to spread information regarding evacuation, weather, and recovery (Guion et al, 25). It is important for rescue teams to be able to locate those in the community who cannot be found during a catastrophic event, however, with communication networks not working, this could be hard. During Hurricane Katrina, communication networks had stopped working due to high winds and power outages. This made it hard for individuals who were lost to be located, and hard for the government to coordinate the response needed (Comfort and Haase, 2). As stated by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study, “over 1.7 million” individuals living on the Gulf had lost power during Hurricane Katrina (Waple, 6). Different systems of communication let the community know of ways to become prepared when it comes to taking shelter and evacuation. Due to the poor preparation for Hurricane Katrina, the government learned lessons on communication strategies that would better inform the community on weather and evacuation plans for Hurricane Sandy.

I definitely agree that we have to also include social media outlet along with traditional media outlets with partnership with emergency mangers. It is useful to teach the public during non-disaster event how to share important information. It is also important to build a strong trust with media and EM mangers to make sure there is very little misinformation to circulate.

It is imperative that relief be linked with development because they both largely dominate any emergency situation simultaneously no matter where it takes place or even when. Furthermore, relief and development are connected by three important factors such as timing, funding, and last but not least information. Also, the most important challenge between relief being linked with development is understanding that they are related, but very much different. Additionally, the challenges come when one tries to understand that there is a grey area among relief and development which we have to find in order to see progress.

Seemingly, emergency management needs to be able to harness the power of the media through a multitude of platforms to communicate timely and accurate information. Harnessing the power of the media can be achieved through a variety of avenues such as television, radio warning systems, text message, telephones and social media. Therefore, leadership must have trained staff who are familiar with the processes, procedures and the methods to coordinate the information with their partners and pass it along to their target audience (Haddow, D. and Haddow, S.,

Emergency management faces many challenges in today’s modern society. In the years prior to 9/11 emergency management was primarily focused on natural disasters. That has since changed; we now face a diverse variety of risks and hazards on a constant basis. As we continue to grow in population current and newer have compounded into more problems that emergency planner must face and find solutions for.

In this paper we will discuss the history of Emergency Management and the political influence shrouding this field for the past two hundred years. Political influence has been steadily increasing and this can be attributed in part to the rise in social media and the increased involvement by local leaders during disaster recovery and response. To support this theory we will also analyze Hurricane Sandy and looking at three politically charged components of the disaster. Finally, we will discuss disaster policy and the future of emergency management.

During any disaster perhaps the most crucial mission is that of response, response is comprised of the coordination and management

The media have been somewhat effective in the peaceful settlement of disputes and responding to the threats of world order. The media has played a significant role in drawing the world’s attention to various disasters and political crisis, and has the power to influence political leaders through public opinion. A clear example is shown in the New York Times article “U.N. Denies That Syria Image Was Faked” (2014) by Rick Gladstone, which highlights their paramount role in the 2014 Thunder Clap Social Media campaign. This campaign aimed to pressure the Syrian government to allow international humanitarian groups and human rights organisations back to Syria to respond to the threat of the Syrian refugee crisis as they were denied access when the

I already mentioned several media by which competing discourses of the past, and of risk, reach their audience and attempt to gain recognition and influence the greater historical narrative of the group. According to Morris-Suzuki (2005), out of the “Kaleidoscopic mass of fragments we make and remake patterns of understanding which explain the origins and nature of the world in which we live. And doing this, we define and redefine the place that we occupy in that world,” (Morris-Suzuki 2005:2). We do not learn the story of disasters from a single source or a single voice. Even when a news outlet is the sole medium to learn of such an event, the format of news reporting for periodic broadcast and for twenty-four hour news channels will share

Risk for disasters is a part of life; emergency situations occur more frequently than many people believe. A wise person plans for the worse, and hopes for the best. After a disaster, how well a community can recover will depend largely on how well they prepared in advance. Risk management includes identifying any potential risks to a community and proactively planning to minimize the threat. Proactive organization of resources and people to respond to emergencies can mean the difference between a community’s ability to regroup and recover, and the loss of life. To better