Disaster Risk Communication 101

While I read the news coming from top western new agencies online, I am saddened not by the images of the aftermath of tsunami engulfed a wide area in the north eastern coastlines of Japan, but of how the news on disaster risks are framed by the journalists. In disaster risk management, the people need to be informed of the situation, updated as necessary; to alert everyone affected, but never to alarm them.

If you have been following the situation in Japan but you're stuck in watching BBC or CNN, or you're referring to western-based news agencies, try to look at what's happening there through the Japanese' eyes via NHK. There you will know the big cultural difference in presenting the situation to the global audience, and the way the Japanese are handling the situation.

The libertarian principle of journalism is that of being socially responsible as a watchdog of the government for the people, and they have a developmental function to emancipate the people from ignorance that inflicts on them various social dilemma. At this early, it becomes obvious how non-Japenese journalists are framing the news to sustain readership or audience share.

The operatives of these journalists, I fear, could add to the pressure now levied on the Japanese parliament. While the lenses of these journalists try to capture the human drama, they fail because the drama is not there at all. In writing, these journalists present the information as dramatic as possible to make the issue hot at an alarming level, even if it is not.

Another concern that surfaces here, is that the tide of information that is not normatively undergoing gatekeeping anymore because the media wants the news out immediately could have an implication as to how authorities should be dealing with the issue. The media seems to be taking an ominiscient role, that is all knowing and all seeing, but blind to the repercussions of their newsframing decisions.

Top western news agencies are focused now on the quantities of death, impact to the Japanese and world economy, and the threat of a nuclear leak. Most often, they refer to experts and authorities outside Japan who also rely on the news that they watch, as if those have an insider's look at the case, while they thousands of miles away from the location.

Indeed, the scene may look 'apocalyptic' , the threats 'at worst fearsome'. But, if we look intently on the actions and the behavior of the Japanese at the foreground of those images, there we see calm, composure and confidence that they can go through with what happened in their own way.

How did the Japanese recover from WWII after Hiroshima was blistered with hydrogen bombs? How they prosper amidst the fact that the Japanese archipelago is sitting on the Pacific-ring of fire, with earthquakes every now and then, and tsunamis from dating from prehistory? The answer to these lie on the matrix of their culture and their values. But, these are often ignored by those outside Japan.

Lastly, the Japanese is not only rich in its culture, but in its openness to share to the world its knowledge. The Hyogo Framework which is model disaster risk management models all over the world is mostly Japanese. What we can see now, is that Japan is setting up a model as to how communication should take place in disastrous stations. Ironically, many do not understand this.

That 19th century painting of the Kanagawa Wave shows how the Japanese mastered their environment by understanding as well as reverring nature. That nature is not an enemy. Even if it demonstrates its strength and power, the Japanese knows what it means and respects that as they remain still. Panic or alarm is an absent element in that cultural artifact.