A Study on Disaster Reporting as Seen in the Television Coverage of "TV Patrol", "24 Oras", and "Aksyon" of Super Typhoon Yolanda
Title: A Study on Disaster Reporting as Seen in the Television Coverage of "TV Patrol", "24 Oras" and "Aksyon" of Super Typhoon Yolanda
Abstract: This study looked into how scientific knowledge is integrated into the disaster reporting of super typhoon Yolanda through key-informant interviews with scientists and journalists, and qualitative content analysis of news segments of “TV Patrol”, “24 Oras” and “Aksyon”.
Super typhoon Yolanda was the strongest typhoon to ever make landfall in recorded history. Local and foreign media reported on the super typhoon before it made landfall in the preparation phase, when it made landfall in the response phase and after, in the recovery phase. Scientific and disaster-related terms such as “storm surge”, were not explained well, and even the media were unprepared by the strength of the storm.
This study aims to analyze the disaster reporting process, how science is incorporated in the news and whether or not journalists have communicated this information to the public effectively.
The researchers interviewed climate scientists who served as sources for the media, and journalists who covered the super typhoon in all three above-mentioned disaster phases. The researchers conducted a qualitative content analysis using news framing to determine how disaster stories were framed and how scientific information was integrated in disaster reports. The content analysis covered 235 news segments and found that “economic consequences” and “human interest” are the dominant frames.
Aguinaldo, C. & Nazal, M. (2015). A Study on disaster reporting as seen in the television coverage of “TV Patrol”, “24 Oras” and “Aksyon” of super typhoon Yolanda. Unpublished undergraduate thesis, University of the Philippines Diliman.
Keywords: Disaster Reporting, Super Typhoon Yolanda, TV Patrol, 24 Oras, Aksyon, Scientist-Journalist interaction, Storm surge, Science Journalism