A Report on the Role of the Media in the Information Flows That Emerge During Crisis Situations
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Paul Reilly1 Dima Atanasova A report on the role of the media in the information flows that emerge during crisis situations Photo by Jem Stone/CC BY Deliverable Number: D3.4 Date 31 May 2016 Due Date (according to DoW) 31 May 2016 Dissemination level PU Reviewed by Anders Lönnermark Grant Agreement No: 607665 Coordinator: Anders Lönnermark at SP Sveriges Tekniska Forskningsinstitut (SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden) Project acronym: CascEff Project title: Modelling of dependencies and cascading effects for emergency management in crisis situations _______________________________________________________________ 1 Both authors are based at the University of Sheffield 2 Contents Executive Summary 3 Nomenclature 6 Acknowledgements 7 1 Introduction 8 1.1 Deliverable description and relationship to IET 9 1.2 Methodology and Approach 10 2 Role of the media in disasters 13 2.1 The traditional role of the media in disaster management 14 2.2 ‘Distant suffering’ and engaging citizens in disaster response 14 2.3 Media and information flows during each phase of emergency management 16 2.3.1 Pre-Disaster 17 2.3.2 During Disaster 18 2.3.3 Post-Disaster 19 2.4 Social media and disaster information flows 20 3 Case studies in disaster information flows 23 3.1 Floods in South-West England, December 2013-January 2014. 23 3.2 Project X Haren, The Netherlands, September 2012. 26 3.3 Pukkelpop Festival Disaster, Belgium, August 2011. 28 4 Conclusion 31 5 References 33 3 Executive Summary This report contributes to the CascEff project by providing an overview of the role of the news media in the information flows during crisis situations. Specifically, it sets out to build on D3.2 and D3.3 through an exploration of how decision-making by relevant stakeholders are communicated to members of the public via the news media throughout the disaster cycle. Disruption to information relations has been identified as one of the most common triggers of cascading effects in other elements of the socio-technical system (Pescaroli and Alexander, 2014). Despite the growth of social media, the news media remains the most effective vehicle for mass communication during disasters and also for the collection and dissemination of crisis information. The reduction of uncertainty and anxiety amongst disaster-affected populations remain important objectives throughout the stages of the incident for those emergency managers who are attempting to prevent disruption of other components of the socio- technical system. The report also provides an overview of the key themes that have emerged in the literature on the role of the news media in information flows during crisis situations, assesses how social media has shaped media coverage of recent disasters, and presents the key findings from a critical thematic analysis of 41 semi-structured interviews conducted with key stakeholders between December 2014 and May 2015. In addition, three large-scale emergencies in Europe were analysed in order to explore how the media contributes to information flows during crisis situations. These were: 1) The floods in South-West England (December 2013 - February 2014); 2) The Pukkelpop music festival disaster in Belgium (18 August 2011); and 3) The ‘Project X’ riots in Haren, the Netherlands (21 September 2012) Role of the news media in information flows relating to crisis situations Key findings included: 1) Print and broadcast media remain the most trusted and authoritative sources of information during crisis situations such as cascading disasters. The persistence of the digital divide militates against the use of social media for risk and crisis communication in many geographically isolated areas. However, a communication mix of both digital and traditional media should ideally be utilised by emergency managers. Disaster-affected populations are still likely to use whatever communication channels are at their disposal to search for information on disaster response and recovery. 2) Traditional media have long played an important role in educating the public on disaster risk. However, media interventions appear to have a greater influence upon general behaviours e.g. handwashing to prevent the spread of the ebola virus disease (EVD) and are not as suitable for the provision of real-time, context-specific information. 3) The news media can make significant contributions to information flows during and after cascading disasters. The verification of user generated content (UGC) and the quelling of rumours and misinformation can help prevent further disruption to other elements of the socio-technical system. However, ‘disaster myths’ perpetuated by professional journalists may also hinder response and recovery initiatives through their distortion of the behaviour and needs of affected populations. 4 4) Emotional discourses in disaster media coverage can help raise aid donations and invite members of the public to care about ‘distant suffering’. However, critics argue that this focus on ‘death and destruction’ has disproportionate influence upon the allocation of resources, and is often appropriated by political elites to serve their respective agendas. 5). The classic Euro-US model of top-down disaster management has gradually been replaced by one of ‘shared responsibility’, in which citizens are encouraged to play an active role in the production and sharing of crisis information via social media. This reflects the explosion of UGC online and the inability of emergency managers and professional journalists to control information flows during cascading disasters. 6) The role of the news media has shifted from gatekeeping to gatewatching, whereby they publicise and share relevant news content rather than focus solely on its production. However, the most shared content during cascading disasters is still likely to originate from the social media accounts of news media organisations and professional journalists. 7) ‘First informers’ and citizen journalists provide eyewitness perspectives on disasters that help emergency managers build situational awareness. Digital volunteers can also help identify those areas that are most in need of disaster relief. This harnessing of collective intelligence via social media has the potential to create new information flows during the response and recovery stages of cascading disasters that could prevent disruption spreading to other elements of the socio-technical system. 8) Social media can also facilitate multi-directional information flows that have psychosocial impacts for populations affected by cascading disasters and help to build resilience against future incidents. Facebook and Twitter in particular bring disaster-affected communities together and help them cope with the trauma associated with these incidents. However, it should be noted that this often privileges the voices of better off residents at the expense of poorer ones, who typical lack the skills and expertise to make themselves heard online. Implications for IET Productive information flows are a pre-requisite for the collaborative model of decision- making that will be supported by the incident evolution tool (IET). These flows of information inform decisions about disaster response and recovery, and so have implications for the wellbeing of populations affected by cascading disasters. They also help emergency managers build situational awareness and identify those areas and communities that are most in need of assistance. This report highlights the contribution of both citizen and professional journalists to the information flows that emerge during each stage of large-scale emergencies and cascading disasters. Print and broadcast news media are likely to remain the most trusted and authoritative source of information for members of the public during cascading disasters. Emergency managers can use traditional media channels to disseminate risk and crisis communication messages to those citizens who are unable or unwilling to engage with digital media technologies. However, newspapers, radio and television appear to be less effective in providing real-time, context specific information to those communities that are vulnerable to disasters. Such real-time information is particularly important for emergency managers wishing to address one of the most common triggers of cascading effects, namely the disruption of information relations. 5 This report suggests that the multi-directional information flows facilitated by social media may be more effective in addressing the immediate needs of communities affected by large- scale emergencies and cascading disasters. Social media can facilitate information exchanges that empower citizens to take greater responsibility for disaster management, provide emotional support for victims, and help build resilience against future disaster events. Emergency managers are also able to benefit from these new information flows through the crowdsourcing of information that helps build situational awareness. This ability to push and pull information from social media has great potential to enhance the quality of emergency management (EM) decision-making facilitated by the IET. However, if users wish to influence the behaviour of citizens during cascading disasters then it is hard to envisage them doing so without engaging the help of news media organisations. While the gatekeeping function of the news media may be considered obsolete, professional journalists are often influential information ‘hubs’ on social media, directing the attention of users towards