Disaster Communication in Managing Vulnerabilities

International Handbook of Disaster Research, 2022

A major concern in disaster management is how to minimize damage to the society. In this endeavor, the prime focus has always been given to saving lives. However, in recent times issues associated with loss of property have emerged as another area of concern. During disaster, the most critical challenge before the disaster managers is how to sustain communication with the affected population and also with those who are likely to be impacted by it. Such a challenge generates the understanding that communication tools do have a significant role in managing disasters. Moreover, the above thinking conventionally has been found to be channelized through the traditional Media like Print media, Radio, and Television. Due to the faster changes in communication technology, we have now social media, which has emerged as an alternative communication tool for study among the scholars working on disaster research. Taking into account the above technological shift, this chapter focuses into how the Indian government

Disasters constitute challenges to development, life and property and environmental protection, and as such disaster management should accompany development efforts. Concerted effort in disaster management involves different stakeholders who are to be constituted and managed through effective interagency linkages and effective coordination engendered by a flexible disaster management policy. This paper posits that effective disaster management results from understanding a community's disaster situation and the process of disaster management, and designing a disaster management policy. It also discusses the communication demands of disaster management and underscores the importance of disaster handling evaluation in recursive policy revision.

The scope of the chapter is to provide an interpretive hypothesis on the different functions of different media in the aftermath of a disaster, drawing upon theoretical and empirical literature and case-studies in the light of Uses and Gratification perspective. Moving from the way people engage with media and interpersonal source, the chapter addresses disaster communication in the light of both collective needs and its related social functions, considering how people actually interact with communication to cope with disasters. A better understanding of the ways situational constraint, individual motivations, consumption patterns and communication cycles are arranged may improve our understanding of the whole disaster communication process, thus being very helpful to ground effective communication strategies, and to better understand the possible consequences of poor message shaping or use of wrong choices of channels. The paper will also discuss complementary roles of broadcast media, interactive digital environments and interpersonal channels to inform public discourse on disaster, improving preparedness measures, giving voice to exposed communities and informing both individual and collective decision, as well as mobilizing human and collective resources to foster return to normalcy. Keywords: Disaster communication, Media functions in disaster, Uses and gratification, Communication theory.

Nordicom Review, 2000

American journal of business, 2023

This article focuses on discussing the perception of risk and the approach to the problem of disaster management from the perspective of public policies, with special attention to communication strategies for prevention, information and intervention in the face of these phenomena. In order to analyze these issues from the point of view of political communication in its crisis and risk dimension, we will focus on disaster risk management and the role played by State policies and the media in such contexts. This implies the elaboration of a holistic view of the problem that allows adapting or modifying pre-existing behavioral patterns at all levels and social spheres in the face of risk. With this article we hope to contribute to the construction of knowledge linked to a particular area of public policy studies oriented to the production of indispensable communicative strategies in accordance with current needs in the field of disaster risk management, which may be taken as references by public organizations at different levels of the State.

Having learned lessons from Hurricane Katrina (and even Irene) government agencies were proactive in using the media and converged forms of communication to prepare and warn residents as super storm Sandy approached the east coast in 2012. While the storm costs are estimated in the billions, this storm will be remembered in the field of public relations and crisis communications as one in which effective communication played a significant role in saving lives and improving preparation efforts. In constructing this analysis of crisis communication, the author provides a critical analysis of crisis communication strategies and capabilities through a Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) perspective. EDWARDS which are not used on a regular basis can prove to be something that is not perceived as economically viable . The social challenges to communicating during a crisis include but are not limited to factors that impact communications within and between transient groups. A clear understanding of communication behavior models are not always incorporated into communication processes (Hedge, Manou, Roa, & Roa, 2006).

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2020

The concept of social vulnerability has been increasingly applied in disaster literature, but its communicative drivers have remained understudied. In this article, we put forward a heuristic framework for explaining how communication-related factors may adversely affect people's capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters. This will help researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the field of disasters and crises to systematically identify individual, social-structural, and situational factors of vulnerability that shape how people access, understand, and act upon information about hazards. We integrate ideas from recent literature on information disorders – various forms and effects of false or harmful information that are characteristic to modern communication ecosystems – to improve our understanding of how the new media environments may transform the ways people learn about hazards and cope with disasters.

Environment Systems and Decisions, 2018

The objective of this paper is to identify strategies to improve the resilience of interagency communication between relief organizations and the community when dealing with an emergency. This research draws from frameworks including information theory, organization design, and how the private sector has learned and evolved from the challenges of information flow to provide guidance to disaster relief agencies. During times of emergency, private organizations as well as public authorities must coordinate in real time to create an effective response. When coordination is absent, failure results, as was seen after Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti Earthquake. Using data that the authors collected immediately after these disasters, two case studies of systemic failure are presented to extract lessons that might be used to improve communication resilience through coordination between parties in humanitarian relief operations. Recent emergency response trends are identified, and the paper argues that the persistence of response failures is not surprising, in part because response organizations normally operate independently, and their operations evolve at different rates. As a result, the organizational interfaces that enable rapid integration during a disaster naturally degrade and may be weak or absent. Integrating the literature on information processing theory and organization design with the data from the two case studies, the paper proposes that increasing the resilience of disaster response systems can be achieved by (1) improving the interoperability and information flow across organizational boundaries; (2) increasing the synergies between organizations on adapting new technology such as social media for the coordination of structured and unstructured data for use in decision-making, and (3) increasing the flexibility of relief organizations to use external resources from areas not affected by disasters on an opportunistic basis. The paper concludes by discussing resilience enhancing solutions including boundary spanning investments and argues that effective emergency response does not result from sporadic or intermittent efforts but rather requires sustained investment, continuous monitoring, and data collection.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a case study on the communication strategies used by the information volunteers of Jalin Merapi during the Mt. Merapi disaster in Indonesia 2010. Design/Methodology/Approach – 18 information volunteers are interviewed to find out about their strategies in organising crisis communication, and follow-up interviews are conducted with several donors and media professionals to understand the wider context. The questions cover how the information is sourced, published, and verified and the reasons behind their decisions. The concept of mediated suffering helps to analyse how their strategies construct with whom, with what subject, and how the media users engage with the survivors. Finding – This study finds that information volunteers of Jalin Merapi focused on the overlooked survivors and issues of Mt. Merapi disaster based on their observation of the mainstream media’s coverage of the previous disaster in 2006. The needs of the refugees, rather than the availability of donor’s aid, were foregrounded to encourage the wider public to donate. And access to connect directly with the survivors was provided to enhance the efficacy of aid and to facilitate repeat donations. Research limitations/implications – Further empirical studies in other disaster contexts are called for to assess whether similar or different strategies are employed in participatory crisis communication. Originality/value – This study presents a rare case of participatory crisis communication in a disaster. The perspective of the media audience helps situate the findings in the context of the wider media environment and in the context of collective action as often seen in response to disaster.

Journal of emergency management and disaster communications, 2022

This study aims to explore the use of Twitter by Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) in 2021, which is determined as the year of disaster education. Within the scope of this study, the tweets of the AFAD Presidency in the media section between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, were examined. The tweets were categorized considering hazard types (geological, hydrological and climatological, biological, technological accidents and Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN), forest fires, migration, and other) and phases of the