Analysing the Role of Mass Media in Disaster Management in India

Abstract

Disasters impact the economies greatly, especially in developing nations. Although, the advancement of media is evident, media involvement is hardly found in disaster situations in India. This thesis is an attempt to find ways to involve media into disaster management in India. In order to identify possible ways to establish more profound role of media in disaster management, author has conducted situational analysis to learn how media has performed so far in large scale disasters in India, conducted surveys for gaining better insights into knowledge level of general population and interviewed experts for understanding why and how of media interventions in disaster management in the country. Interestingly, media s mention cannot be ruled out from existing policies and frameworks, and it has been there ever since the formation of Disaster Management Act. It is noticed that media s presence has increased from the time of tsunami in 2004 (where only reporting of events was taken care of by media), to Uttarakhand Flash Floods 2013 (media played an informative role during disaster phase), to Tamil Nadu floods in 2015 (various types of media was used for locating victims and reaching out to them). However, all three are examples of media usage during response phase. Looking at countries like Japan, it is found that media is working more effectively in propagating preventive measures in addition to being a partner in response mechanism. Disaster management in India requires to build a roadmap for capacity building. This document provides a sustainable model for better government media and public partnerships that can be adapted according to crisis for its better management. It is solemnly hoped that this research will be of pronounced use for future, though revisions, updating and upgrading is a continued process. newline