Media and Disaster Risk Reduction

Media is an effective and essential stakeholder in disaster risk reduction and can enhance citizen perspectives through timely and science-based information dissemination. Media has a role in all phases of disaster management, from preparedness to during disaster, response and recovery. Different media have different target groups. Traditional media covers all age groups, while new media (like social media) is more popular among the younger generation. Role of media has been observed very strongly in addressing the global pandemic COVID-19. Citizen reporters are becoming popular to inform the ground realities during a disaster situation. This chapter draws some specific lessons on the role of media in disaster risk reduction. The chapter also provides an outline of the book.

During the second decade of the twenty-first century, members of the Asia Broadcast Union staff and associated consultants and trainers worked across the Asia–Pacific region on various training and consultation projects related to Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction programmes. Some of their experiences are highlighted in this paper, which is aimed primarily at outlining the lessons that have or should have been learned. Despite the logistic and practical challenges facing Asian and Pacific broadcasters and media outlets, the analysis offers a way forward regarding strategy and approaches that can be adopted for the development and improvement of mass audience awareness, safety and well-being.

In Indonesia and Japan, where there are many natural disasters, community radio has played an important role as a “hub” for local information during times of disaster and recovery and reconstruction. In Indonesia, a community radio station will be established in the affected area under the leadership of the Community Radio Association, with civil society taking the lead. On the other, in Japan, in the event of a major disaster, local governments in the disaster-stricken areas set up temporary disaster broadcasting stations with the support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and neighboring community radio stations hand. Both forms have advantages and disadvantages. In particular, in the case of Japan, there is little initiative from residents, and in the case of Indonesia, there is little involvement from the government. The Japan–Indonesia Joint program has been deployed in Indonesia since 2017. The aim of this project is to enhance the functions of community radio, a public–private partnership to enhance the community-based disaster risk reduction capabilities. The model is a public–private partnership in Wakayama, where the risk of a Nankai Trough Megathrust Earthquake is high. The community radio sectors in both countries continue to localize this model to several areas in Indonesia such as Boyolali, the location of Merapi Volcano, in Indonesia. This chapter focuses on the installment of the Wakayama model to Boyolali, this paper examines a mechanism in which community radio is established with community initiative in the event of a disaster, and its activities can be continued until the period of recovery and reconstruction in cooperation with the government.

The role of social media in disaster response and recovery is becoming more and more prominent, as it was seen during and after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the 2012 Hurricane Sandy in the USA, and a great number of crisis events ever since. Social media platforms are also increasingly used by a variety of actors—from ordinary residents, to local and international organizations, governments, and traditional media outlets—to a different degree and to different effects. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and others are now among the primary means for information dissemination, mapping and sending instant reports, organizing volunteers and help groups, connecting with family members, and donation gathering. Nonetheless, some concerns over personal data privacy, “fake” news, scams, misinformation and difficulties in outreach to older populations have also been identified. This chapter will provide a brief overview of the available literature on the role of social media for disaster management, and the types, uses, benefits and potential threats and challenges. A review of relevant case studies is included to identify some good and bad practices and derive lessons learnt. Finally, the chapter will pinpoint some key takeaway messages for practitioners and policy-makers in an attempt to chart the way forward.

It is generally thought that the role of media played in disasters is to give alerts and reduce damage with information on affected areas. Media such as televisions, radio reports and newspaper articles provide this kind of information as soon as possible. In other words, these media work at the same time as disaster occur and spread. The media, on the other hand, this chapter focuses on does not work at the time of calamity, but it works for the future. Records of disaster are useful information storage to raise awareness of disaster prevention among residents who live in places where disasters may occur again. It is very important to hand over the past records and lessons to the next generation. There are several effective forms of storage media such as books, stone monuments, videos, preserved relics and so on. However, the experiences felt by the victims are sometimes deleted from the memory of the people who have psychological trauma. There are also various challenges in preserving damaged architectural structures. How is Japan, disaster-prone nation, addressing these issues? Example of efforts to record the experience by the children in the affected areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake showed us the way to record their experiences in disaster media and absorb them into local culture. By comparing with the catastrophes of other countries like South Asia, this chapter will find that the usage of relic is unique effort to Japan. The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima is a relic that tells the scale of destruction beyond generations (Shimakawa  2012). Its power as a media goes beyond video and language. It is necessary to consider how to preserve and use relic and remain sites as media for disaster mitigation.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is one of the fragile ecosystems in terms of climate change and its impacts, which is reflected by the effect of both slow-onset and fast-onset disasters. Traditionally, this area has been a co-existence between nature and people. Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) systems and practices have featured in agriculture, water resources management, forest management, disaster risk reduction, health risk management, disaster early warning, etc. ILK could be an entry point for introducing appropriate adaptation know-how and practices through enhancement and customization in a cost-effective manner. However, communication is a challenge to the promotion and diffusion of potential ILK and practices for climate change adaptation (CCA). Lack of scientific assessments, inadequate documentation, and their diversity are the key barriers for communicating the merits of ILK for CCA. In this chapter, the role of community radio networks in HKH is discussed as an effective vehicle to bridge the existing communication gaps in three ways. First, as a platform to share climate change impacts and ILK-based coping mechanisms among local communities. Second, share potential ILK-based solutions relevant to CCA across the local communities. And third, to connect with stakeholders beyond the community level (such as government, researchers and scientists, and development partners) to disseminate information about local issues, financial and capacity needs, and mainstreaming of local practices into the region’s CCA planning and implementation. A framework is proposed for the incorporation of community radio as a formal means of CCA communication.

This chapter offers the diverse reporting experience of Asian journalists when covering major disasters in their countries for leading domestic and international media. Through their voices—as quoted in their personal contributions for this book—the reader has access to a special insider look into the intricacies of media reporting. In addition, this chapter opens a window into the varied topics covered by journalists before, during and after the disaster. A critical aspect of this section is the compilation of their recommendations based on their experience. We hope the information will contribute to the ongoing development of disaster communication practices and media research.

Being governed and managed by the local people, community radios effectively serve for addressing local concerns in local language and cultural context. However, their sustainable operations during disaster situations are often interrupted due to technical issues like power blackouts, limited frequency range, etc. While contemporary research is focused on overcoming the social, financial and institutional challenges to community radio operations, this chapter mainly deliberates on overcoming the technological challenges. In that regard, digital technologies like mobile phones and internet are presenting newer means of information sharing that complement the community radio operations, helping cover a wider audience from within and beyond their geographical frequency range. The chapter discusses two selected case study examples of Jalin Merapi (Indonesia) and Signal FM (Haiti) based on literature review. Notably, the community radio operations in both cases were restrained during disaster situations, however, the integration of digital technologies enhanced their effectiveness in disaster communication. The study derives key lessons from the selected cases and suggests feasible strategies for integrating digital technologies with community radio operations. To enhance the sustainability of community radio operations in long term, the study emphasizes on enhancing community engagement and raising digital awareness.

This chapter examines the measures taken toward enabling media to report urban disasters with depth and accuracy. Bangladesh, a highly populated and disaster-prone country, has developed good response systems, especially focusing on coastal disasters where regular typhoons have led to widespread human and environmental destruction. But the emergence of deadly urban disasters with higher losses experienced in the country’s cities has raised the urgent need to adopt and implement measures to strengthen urban resilience. The media case study presented here highlights that specific support is necessary for journalists to deepen their knowledge about urban disasters and there is a pressing need to strengthen their Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) reporting capacity that is a key to educating the public. Dhaka, the capital city with a 15 million population is highly vulnerable to fires, urban floods and air pollution. Journalists participating in the training program focused on disasters in North Dhaka and were introduced to Japan’s advanced reporting experience under the platform of learning from each other. Another prominent aspect of this study is the development of collaborative activities between journalists and communities toward build disaster resilience in Dhaka. This network worked smoothly and facilitated the journalists to highlight DRR topics in their reporting (Urban Disaster Resilience of Dhaka North City Corporation 2017).

China is one of the countries most affected by natural disasters. Disaster reporting and risk communication have played critical roles in face of the unexpected and catastrophic natural disasters in China, and even more so in the digital age. The innovative development of social media and new media technologies brings enormous potentials for exploring new paradigms of effective communication and reaching the public proactively and effectively. It serves as a catalyst for not only disaster professionals, but also media and science communication practitioners, even the lay population to engage in the communication. This chapter first introduces the diversified active players involved in the arena in the new media age. It then discusses the new media approaches and advanced technologies applied in practice. To further understand the tendencies, we summarize some of the new dynamics of risk communication in China. The chapter closes with discussions on how to contribute to effective risk communication with sufficient qualified professionals and quality contents.

Local disasters—usually smaller in scale in terms of fatalities and loss comparison to the major tragedies—are commonly ignored in the mainstream media. But, as a case study in Varanasi has illustrated, disasters occurring close to home have impacted local societies gravely by causing lasting destruction. Their occurrence tends to be regular and linked to seasonal changes, and local reporters reporting the disasters say that their coverage is widely disseminated in the public and respected for providing crucial information. The case study also indicates news reports that capture the reality on the field, have played a role in facilitating aid and assistance for the affected from outside. Journalists participating in the study further noted that when losses from local disasters have reached large proportions creating difficult political and economic consequences spreading beyond the area, local disaster reporting has gained the attention of the national media and central authorities.

Disasters are one of the most difficult and complex assignments news correspondents have to manage and cover in their professional careers. It involves managing high level of risks and hardship, as it entails gathering news in an environment of uncertainty and social dislocation caused by a given disaster. This paper attempts to critically analyze the challenges news reporters have to face in a Disaster Zone. Based on a first-hand field experience of covering the devastating floods in Jammu and Kashmir in September 2014, the worst in India’s recent history in terms of scale and the quantum of economic losses it caused, the paper delineates the logistical challenges and ethical and moral questions news correspondents have to face while working in a Disaster Zone. It proposes a Code of Conduct for disaster-sensitive reporting and highlights the significance of an ethical and humanitarian approach in Disaster Journalism. The paper outlines a Standard Operating Procedure news correspondents should adhere to while gathering news in a Disaster Zone, including an ethical protocol for interviewing disaster victims. At the larger level, the primary objective is to develop a normative framework for Disaster Reporting which is becoming increasingly important, especially in the context of a rise in frequency and scale of climate-related disasters in the last two decades. Disasters destroy critical infrastructure like rural roads and highways, bridges, power and water supply lines, and communication infrastructure (including mobile towers) in and around Ground Zero. This makes it challenging for news correspondents to travel inside a disaster-affected zone and gather and transmit news from there. The unprecedented deluge in Jammu and Kashmir and the landslides that followed made it difficult for reporters to travel by road to Srinagar and other flood-affected areas for several days. Disasters also disrupt social processes: they create a social circle of fear in the affected areas, as the victims suffer from an acute sense of loss of life and property around them. This makes it imperative for Reporters to develop a Protocol to manage risk and gather news in a climate of fear and insecurity. They also need to protect themselves from the possible outbreak of an epidemic in a given disaster zone. At a broader level, the chapter argues the outflow of credible information from a given disaster zone is largely conditioned by the ability of news correspondents to access and gather critical information in a disaster zone. Credible news reporting on the nature and scale of damages and the status of rescue and relief work in a disaster-affected zone can help direct relief and rescue operations in the right direction and also strengthen them. This is especially significant in situations, where disasters impair the institutional flow of information from official channels, mainly because of the sudden collapse of communication structures.

Japanese broadcasters have made great efforts to report disasters over the past 100 years. The role of broadcasting is not only to report the damage when a disaster occurs. When there is a risk of a disaster, to convey correct information and encourage rapid evacuation, to support the recovery and reconstruction of the affected area after a disaster, to deepen understanding of disaster risks in normal times and to raise awareness of disaster prevention. There are roles to be played before, during, after disasters and normal times. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people on March 11, 2011, coverage of disasters in Japan has increasingly focused on hazard mitigation. Broadcasters have been making progress in improving both the software and hardware for encouraging early evacuation in disasters. This chapter describes the challenge and issues of disaster broadcasting in Japan in recent years.

In Japan, the number of foreign tourists and residents is steadily increasing which requires urgent attention in a strategic risk communication process. However, social infrastructure in Japan, including media communication, is not yet sufficient for foreigners due to lingual, cultural, and social gaps. While the tourists need customized emergency information, foreign residents need more local risk information to enhance their daily life preparedness. To find an effective strategy, this chapter will analyze disaster awareness and risk communication of foreign tourists and residents in Japan through a first-hand survey, data analysis, and interviews. The survey focuses on four language groups, Chinese, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian speaking communities, which have different historical and social backgrounds in Japan. This chapter also discusses countermeasures through a local activity which involved foreign and Japanese residents and proved to be effective communication in the time of disaster.

BOSAI is a Japanese word to express various efforts to mitigate disaster risk. This chapter documents how NHK broadcasters have developed programs and other contents in order to spread BOSAI know-how from the program producers’ point of view. NHK WORLD-JAPAN is an international segment of NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. Its service primarily targets overseas audiences and its content is multilingual. In 2017, NHK started a radio program series of BOSAI, or disaster preparedness. The production team has since sought effective approaches to encourage people to take real action to reduce disaster risk, by expanding its services from broadcasting to online contents, SNS, events, etc. In this chapter, based on the experience of NHK WORLD-JAPAN, the authors focus on the concept of “participatory coverage,” inspired by “action research” in the academic world. “Participatory coverage” means that the media and citizens work together to improve society through the process of content production and by utilizing the content. This is especially important in the field of disaster preparedness, where taking action is indispensable to protect lives. The chapter also recognizes a TV program as an example of “participatory coverage,” because the collaborators continue learning BOSAI on their own even after the program was over.