When the history of the deadly Dec 26 Indian Ocean tsunami comes to be written, will the role of the media be praised, criticised or just seen as inadequate? "We didn’t do a good job in warning people. But once the disaster hit, we did a good job in (spreading the world)," said Colombo-based TV journalist Nalaka Gunawardene.
When the history of the deadly Dec 26 Indian Ocean tsunami comes to be written, will the role of the media be praised, criticised or just seen as inadequate? "We didn’t do a good job in warning people. But once the disaster hit, we did a good job in (spreading the world)," said Colombo-based TV journalist Nalaka Gunawardene.
Meeting in the capital of Thailand, one of the east and south Asian countries badly hit by the tsunami, journalists from the region took stock over the way the Fourth Estate responded to that tragic event.
They pondered over how timely communication could save lives, or mitigate the impact. On whether the media needs to balance the publc’s right to know with the right to dignity and privacy. Or what are the limits and limitations of the media and communication in disasters. And whether when other social institutions are non-existant, collapsing, corrupted, simply
too much is expected of the mass media.
Some US$ 13 billion was pledged by way of aid — not all materialised — to cope with the tsunami, making it the single largest donation response to a global calamity. "The world would have not responded the way it did without the media," argued Gunawardene.
Former French health minister and Medecins sans Frontiers co-founder Bernard Kouchner has argued in another context: "Where there is no camera, there is no humanitarian intervention." Others have pointed out that information is a vital form of aid in itself, but this is not sufficiently recognised by humanitarian organisations.
Penang-Malaysia based Chin Saik Yoon, communications specialist and publisher of the alternative Southbound Press, recalls how his attempts to trace the Singapore-based NRI from Tamil Nadu, who saved the village with a phone call, had rebounded.
"Later, I learnt that the man one of the most hated in the village. Reports that no life had been lost there (because of the timely phone call) was misread to mean there was no damage; but the village had been destroyed. Villagers were angry when they were by-passed for aid," Chin said.
Said Asoka Dias of Sirasa TV/Mararaja TV, from Sri Lanka, a country which lost 35000 lives:: "In Sri Lanka, tsunamis have been reported as far back as in 200 BC and as late as 1883. Yet when the tsunami story was breaking (in 2004), the biggest challenge was to find a word or a phrase to explain the tsunami in local languages."
United Nations Development Programme’s APDIP programme specialist Chanuka Wattegama says the only unintended good consequence of the tsunami was that blogs began to be seriously written and read in Sri Lanka. From 5-10 blogs,
the country now has "100-200 bloggers, daily expressing their ideas."
Bloggers, or informal diarists on the internet, were giving useful information during the tsunami, believes Wattegama.
Lisa Hiller, UNDP Nepal press officer, argues that Maldives got overlooked in aid terms, because the initial message that went out was the situation was "fine". "Later, issue came out was that the Maldives had got quite badly affected. But it was late," she said.
Dhaka-based Drik Picture Library director Shahid ul Alam says: "As a media person you need to find a balance. What’s very important is sending out the messages, the real stories of what’s happening during the disaster. On the other hand, countries like mine are known for disasters. There’s a very strong stereotyping happening."
Some shortcomings of the media logic was also pointed to.
Chennai-based Professor Nalini Rajan, Dean of Studies and Associate Professor, Asian College of Journalism, argues: "As critics say, the media is very good at reporting an event, but very bad at explaining processes that lead to an event."
Islamabad-based journalist turned disaster researcher Amjad Bhatti calls for a need for the media to redefine disasters, and to shift away from being "largely obsessed with macro disasters". He pointed out that slow-onset disasters are ignored in favour of sudden-onset ones.
"(For the media) a disaster which did not happen, is not a story. For media any story needs to carry a shock value; if it bleeds, it leads. The tsunamisation of disasters have desensitised us," he argued.
Said he: "Disasters have different categories. There are creeping disasters like drought. If 500 people die in a train mishap, it’s a big story. But if that many die by drinking pesticides, that’s not a story. So, many people have to die in one place at the same time (to grab media attention)."
Journalists also pointed to the challenge of "bringing out the human face of a large-scale disaster".
Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives were among the worst hit by the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the second anniversary of which is being organised this week.