Citation

Puente S, Marin H, Álvarez PP, Flores PM, Grassau D. Disasters 2019; 43(3): 555-574.

Affiliation

PhD student and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Communications, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12377

PMID

31206228

Abstract

This paper reviews the role of news with respect to the mental health of a population exposed to a disaster. It is based on the five essential elements of psychosocial care presented by Stevan E. Hobfoll et al. (2007) that can be introduced after a potentially traumatic event: promoting a sense of safety, calming, self and collective efficacy, connectedness, and hope. This study developed a method to relate these elements to television coverage and applied it to the stories (n=1,169) aired by the main networks in Chile in the 72 hours after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck on 27 February 2010. Of the five elements, promoting a sense of safety occurred most often (82.72 per cent), whereas the others were barely present (less than 10 per cent). The study argues that these elements can increase the possibility of framing the news, given that the audience watching can also be affected by a disaster.

© 2019 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2019.

Language: en

Keywords

Chile; disaster response; earthquake; journalism; media; mental health; television; tsunami