Over four years after it was published, TVE Asia Pacific’s Communicating Disasters: An Asia Pacific Resource Book keeps making ripples.
In the latest development, the book, released in December 2007, formed part of the reference material used during a multi-faceted research project at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University in Germany.
Communicating disaster was the theme of ZiF’s research programme during 2010/11.
The book’s co-editor and TVEAP Director Nalaka Gunawardene was invited to deliver a keynote address during the project’s closing conference titled “Dealing with the Disaster of Others”, held in Bielefeld on 26 to 28 January 2012.
At this conference, the fellows of the ZiF-Research Group Communicating Disaster presented first research outcomes of the multiple activities, events, regular working meetings and collaborations of their research year, and discussed areas for further research.
| The four sessions of the conference were organised around four topics covering the major fields of research and discussions within the research year: |
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Communicating Disaster in Space and Time; |
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Media and the Micro Order of Disaster; |
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Technologies and Social Media for Dealing with Disasters; and |
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Organisation and Management of Disaster Communication |
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 Nalaka’s keynote address, part of the session devoted to the media, was titled “Breaking News on a Restless Planet: Covering Disasters in a Networked Society”.
Building on his 25 years of experience in reporting and analysing science, environment and development issues across Asia, Nalaka looked at how the acceleration of the news cycle – triggered by 24/7 TV news and the web -- has created new tensions between the media and disaster managers.
“As disasters increase in frequency and intensity partly due to climate change, mainstream media practitioners across Asia struggle to keep up,” Nalaka noted. “This is happening at a time when the mainstream media itself is struggling the survive the new media tsunami and the global economic recession.”
Nalaka took recent examples from Asia to discuss how disasters are more drawn out (e.g. Pakistan floods, 2010 & Thailand floods, 2011), geographically scattered (Indian Ocean tsunami, 2004) and economically devastating (Tohoku/Fukushima, 2011) than before.
“This stretches the capacities and resources of many news organisations. Saturation coverage of unfolding disasters can also cause ‘compassion fatigue’ and apathy in audiences,” he pointed out.
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Breaking News on a Restless Planet:
Covering Disasters in a Networked Society
Keynote Presentation by Nalaka Gunawardene
Director, TVE Asia Pacific, www.tveap.org
Co-editor, Communicating Disasters: An Asia Pacific Resource Book (2007)
ABSTRACT/SUMMARY
Communicating disasters -- before, during and after they happen -- is fraught with many challenges. The increased volume and flow of information, enabled by the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), fills some gaps -- but not all. Other critical elements such as institution building, training and awareness raising are needed at all levels to create societies that are better informed and prepared.
The news media, driven by their quest for what is new, true and interesting, can be useful allies for disaster managers. But the nexus between these two groups has always been contentious, and the acceleration of the news cycle has made it more so. Having to sustain 24/7 coverage for their fragmented and distracted audiences places enormous pressures on news media to break news first -- and reflect later. In this scenario, how can empathetic, ethical and balanced reporting happen?
As disasters increase in frequency and intensity partly due to climate change, mainstream media practitioners across Asia struggle to keep up. Disasters are more drawn out (e.g. Pakistan floods, 2010 & Thailand floods, 2011), geographically scattered (Indian Ocean tsunami, 2004) and economically devastating (Fukushima, 2011) than before. This stretches the capacities and resources of many news organisations. Saturation coverage of unfolding disasters can also cause ‘compassion fatigue’ and apathy in audiences.
In today’s networked society, news media are no longer the sole gatherers or distributors of news. Without the trappings and inertia of the institutionalised media, citizen journalists are quick to adopt ICT tools and platforms. What does this mean for communicating disasters that requires care and sensitivity? In which ways can we find synergy between mainstream and new/social media to better serve the public interest on a warming planet? What value-additions can the mainstream media still offer to the coverage of disasters near and far?
We examine these and other larger questions with reference to recent disasters in Asia.
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