Piece on BU Disaster Reporting Conference

Conference Sheds Light on How Media Should Cover Disasters

By Estefania Souza

BOSTON—A panel made up of a reporter, a coordinator, an editor and a UN senior policy adviser answered questions Thursday afternoon regarding media coverage in countries affected by natural disasters. The panel, Getting the Information out—Immediate Crisis Response, was part of a conference held at Boston University to address how natural disasters are reported.

The underlying issue seemed to be the relationship formed between the media and the disaster-stricken country. “Journalists [place] burdens on a country that has been hit by a disaster,” said Donna Leinwand Leger, a reporter for USA Today.

To answer the question of how reporters should behave in the aftermath of a disaster, she said the media has to be conscious of their presence. “You must be self-sufficient…ought to be mindful,” she said.

The panel explained how it is hard for an affected country to deal with international media. “The media com[es] in… expecting immediate response,” said Nancy Dorsinville, senior policy advisor of U.N. Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti. Journalists, she said, often forget that they are dealing with destroyed countries.

Dorsinville went on to tell the anecdote of one media team in particular, “One French rescue team in particular… said ‘we need someone to go to the local fire station and get us ladders and ropes.’ Fire stations. Plural? Hello!”

The problem, according to Dorsinville, is that the international media forgets about the vulnerability of the affected country. “Everything is already fragile…and the media is coming and saying we want this we want that… everything has to be done right away… [and] that’s a real challenge,” she said.

However, Dorsinville also said that media coverage is necessary in the aftermath of a disaster. “[It’s about] how the media contributes to [the] implications,” she said. According to her, it depends on how the media makes a connection between what happened and what is reported.

The fact is that “25 percent of news in general is about some kind of natural disaster,” Dorsinville said. “There seems to be something in the general public that really is curious… by those kinds of things.” News have to be covered regardless of the gory details, she said.

Manolia Charlotin, editor and business manager of the Boston Haitian Reporter, added to this point. “For journalists… its important for us to respect this institution and this profession,” she said. According to her, the media should continue to report on natural disasters and their consequences. “We (the public) need reporters to keep covering the facts.”

In her opinion, the media plays a very important part. “At the end of the day, without journalists, we don’t have any information to work with,” she said.

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