Mass Media Systems And Community Hazards And Disasters
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Date
1989
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Abstract
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Chapter 1. Introduction
From September 1985 through August 1988 the Disaster Research Center
(DRC) at the University of Delaware undertook a study of local mass
media response to community disasters. A total of 15 new field studies
were undertaken for this research, fourteen in the United States and
one in Canada (and for certain purposes comparable data from two
earlier studies were also used). The research had a number of specific
topical goals, namely the following. First, we conducted a survey of all local media outlets in those
communities in which DRC carried out field work for this study. The
purpose of the survey was to document the involvement of the Local
radio, television and newspaper organizations in local community
disasters. We were interested in establishing the degree and kind of
participation in the response that the local mass communication system
would show in disasters in their own areas. Second, 32 in depth case studies were undertaken of the largest and
most involved local radio, television and newspaper outlets. The
primary goal of this second research objective was to determine the
organizational structure and news processing patterns of these entities
in the emergency periods of disasters. Specifically, we examined such
intraorganizational and interorganizational elements as the-gatekeeping
process, the decision making structure, news sources used, and news
processing during the emergency period and to compare these patterns with normal, day-to-day operations.
Keywords
Mass Media Systems, Community Hazards, Organizational Analysis, Interorganizational Issues