Ducking for cover in the ‘blame game’: news framing of the findings of two reports into the 2010–11 Queensland floods

After a disaster, the media typically focus on who is to blame. However, relatively little is known about how the narrative of blame plays out in media coverage of the release of official disaster reports. This paper examines coverage by two Australian newspapers (The Courier‐Mail and The Australian) of the release of the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry's Interim Report and its Final Report to identify whether and how the news frame of blame was used. Given the absence of blame in the Final Report, the newspapers resorted to the frame of ‘failure’ in news and feature articles, while continuing to raise questions in editorials and opinion pieces about who was to blame. This study argues that situating coverage of the report within the news frame of failure and questioning who was to blame for the disaster limited the media's ability to facilitate a discussion about the prevention of similar disasters in the future.     

新时期公众对地震谣言的认知状况分析

通过对北京地区不同阶层人群的防震减灾科普知识、需求及科普形式创新调查数据的定量分析,以及对2008年汶川地震发生后政府成功制止谣言的传播和2010年山西部分地区地震谣言传播事件进行的分析,阐述了地震谣言产生和传播的社会基础以及政府危机传播策略在地震谣言事件中存在的问题.防震减灾科普知识的匮乏以及对地震部门工作的不了解导致公众对地震谣言的识别能力低下;媒体对地震知识的概念混淆,使得高知人群更容易对国内地震预报工作产生误解;政府仅仅通过单一媒体对地震谣言进行简单的辟谣,效果将会非常有限.     

Media coverage of the ‘UK flooding crisis’: a social panorama

A disaster referred to by the press as the ‘UK flooding crisis’ occurred between December 2015 and January 2016. This study employed three different levels of analysis to identify a multidimensional perspective adopted in the disaster reporting of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). These levels revealed details about the social actors and their interactions. The set of news exposed diverse viewpoints on the crisis, from loss and damage to distinct affected subgroups to the various social engagement actions of aid and the multiplicity of technical response measures. The conclusions highlight considerable social amplitude in the BBC's coverage; however, owing to the reductionist approach of this media communicator, the field of action involving different social actors was not very clear in the content of the news, particularly with regard to cohesion, conflict/obstruction, and concernthe concept of crisis in its essence. In addition, the paper suggests new questions for future reports. 1     

Gender and international crisis response: do we have the data,and does it matter?

For more than a decade the humanitarian community has been mandated to mainstream gender in its response to crises. One element of this mandate is a repeated call for sex-disaggregated data to help guide the response. This study examines available analyses, assessments and academic literature to gain insights into whether sex-disaggregated data are generated, accessible and utilised, and appraised what can be learned from existing data. It finds that there is a gap between policy and practice. Evaluations of humanitarian responses rarely refer to data by sex, and there seems to be little accountability to do so. Yet existing data yield important information, pointing at practical, locally-specific measures to reduce the vulnerability of both males and females. This complements population-level studies noting the tendency for higher female mortality. The study discusses some possible obstacles for the generation of data and hopes to spur debate on how to overcome them.