ORI GIN AL PA PER

The emergence of star disaster-affected areasand its implications to disaster and communicationinterdisciplinary study: a Taiwan examplefrom Typhoon Morakot

Chiung-wen Hsu

Received: 16 March 2012 / Accepted: 2 April 2013 / Published online: 25 April 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract This study explored the phenomenon of star disaster-affected areas createdby media in Taiwan and its consequences. Taitung County was chosen as the study subject

since it was covered in a biased large amount in 2009 Typhoon Morakot unprecedentedly.

A content analysis of four major newspapers, in-depth interviews, and field research in

Chialan and Dawu Township founds that media is the key player to create star disaster-

affected areas. The factors of being star disaster-affected areas are the degree of

impacted severity in the areas, the numbers of affected residents, casualty and death tolls,

accessibility to affected areas, and most importantly human interests and visual impacts for

better media storytelling. The consequences include uneven resources distributions and

unfair reaction and recovery policies. This study provided implications for media workers,

disaster management actors, residents, and media scholars to revisit ethics and theory to fit

it the characteristics of disaster news and above all, disaster and communication scholars to

develop an interdisciplinary study to facilitate disaster management.

Keywords Star disaster-affected areas Media hype Typhoon Morakot Disaster andcommunication interdisciplinary study Disaster management Taiwan

1 Introduction

Since 1999, there have been tremendous disasters hitting Taiwan, including 921 ChiChi

Earthquake, typhoons, and landslides, which affected wide range of areas and caused

casualty and death, agriculture loss, and property loss. At the same time, Taiwan also

experiences unprecedented media explosion, following by the promulgating of 1993 Cable

Radio and Television Act. There are seven 24-h news channels, five networks, and four

major papers fighting for ratings and revenues.

Disasters have become battlefields for the sensational media. Reporters from the Press

or broadcasting are notorious for their rudeness to victims and skin-deep coverage mainly

C. Hsu (&)National Cheng Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of Chinae-mail: teljulia@nccu.edu.tw

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focusing on blood and tears. The worse, in order to catch audiences attention, reporters

love to cover the most casualty and death areas, to emphasize the dramatic elements, and to

launch live-report while entering the dangerous, remote- and unknown-affected areas with

no safe preparation.

It turns out to be pack journalism in disaster reporting. Reporters not only produce

homogeneous news, but also concentrate on similar disaster-affected areas. Some affected

areas become stars or namely celebrities. In Taiwan, no matter government, media or

residents are familiar with, and often use the popular term star disaster-affected areas

(MING SING ZAI QU). Little research has studied the reasons and influences of this over-

reporting by Media. However, it is crucial for disaster management (DM) for authorities

and residents in affected and non-affected areas.

After the Aug. 7th flooding in 1959, Typhoon Morakot in August 2009 was the deadliest

typhoon to impact Taiwan in recorded history and also the severest disasters in terms of

casualty after 1999 ChiChi earthquakes. The storm brought by Typhoon Morakot gen-

erated enormous amounts of rainfall up to nearly 3,000 mm in some counties, which

reached accumulative precipitation of a year in Taiwan. The tremendously large amount of

rain caused landslides, flooding, and mudslides throughout Southern and Southeast

Taiwan.

The most severe affected area was Shiaolin Village of Kaohsiung County buried in the

landslide. Four hundred and ninety-one people were dead and missing in this village alone

with the landscape changed. The Apple Daily first reported the tragedy on Aug. 10, 2009.

Other affected areas included river mouth and river bank areas in Taimali Creek, Chihpen

Creek in Taitung County and flooding in Pingtung and Kaohsiung County, and landslide in

mountain areas in Chiayi County. Chihpen Creek flooding washing away Kinshi Hotel on

Aug. 8 and Taimali Creek washing away houses in Chialan were also noted damaged areas.

Six hundred and forty-three people were dead and 60 were missing as a result.

This study takes disaster-affected areas along Taimali Creek, Taitung County, Taiwan,

as an example. These risk potential areas has been damaged by several typhoons and were

seldom reported. But during Typhoon Morakot, for some reasons, it became star disaster-

affected areas, which was covered in a large amount. The purpose of this paper is to

explore the characteristics of star areas, possible causes and influences, and implications

on communication and disaster studies.

2 The emergence of star disaster-affected areas in media coverage

In order to see when the term star disaster-affected areas has emerged and how it has

been used, the research first used CNA news archive to search for the term. CNA news

archive has included more than 20 newspapers from 1949 till now in Taiwan. The term

emerged first time ever in Taiwan Press after the 1999 ChiChi earthquake with negative

meaning. It was used in recovery stage because some famous disaster-affected areas earned

more resources than others. China Times used the term to describe that some areas

received more resources on school rebuild, which caused unfair distribution of donations

and budgets.

Then, in February 2000, severe landslides hit the middle part of Taiwan. The residents

in mountains affected areas criticized the government only cared about the people in

cities. The term was used in disaster period. Ironically, this term was frequently used by

government agencies to defend against the criticism that the government has not prepared

for disasters. The former Prime Minister Frank Hsieh used the term to point out that biased

40 Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957

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coverage and attention were paid to those frequently affected and also vulnerable areas,

from which it was not fair to judge his performance.

Disaster itself, no matter natural or man-made, is a topic that people are easy to

understand and related to, a kind of social problem affecting people in society, and a

subject evokes strong feelings. It goes without saying that one particular disaster or

multiple disasters are the trigger event of media hypes (Vasterman et al. 2005). Star

disaster-affected areas in some senses seem to be the second-wave hype after first-wave

hype (disaster reporting), which override other damaged areas. The lowering of news

thresholds of other affected areas caused other damages, problems, and opinions being

neglected or marginalized. However, little research clarifies the influences and conse-

quences of star disaster-affected areas.

2.1 Media hypes and disasters

Media hypes are often defined as a media generated, wall-to-wall news wave, triggered

by one specific event and enlarged by the self-reinforcing processes within the news

production of the media Vasterman (2005: 515). If media creates the false impression

accumulatively, peoples perception, behaviors, and even policies from authority would be

distorted, which causes urgent problems.

Originally, media hypes were often categorized into four ways, including amplification,

magnification, exaggeration, and distortion. Without a reality check, defining exaggeration

and distortion is subjective (Vasterman 2005; Wien and Elmelund-Praestekaer 2009).

Thus, Vasterman (2005) tended to use the definition of amplification and magnification.

Although the definition of media hypes, he claimed, did not include reality, they did

include its influences of construction of social problems, which could compare with other

constructions of reality. His contribution to the concept of media hypes is critical by

pointing out the self-reinforcing processes in news production and its influences.

Vasterman (2005) found that media hypes phenomenon in media coverage of senseless

street violence in the Netherlands. The news waves were mostly triggered by key events.

Four from five newspapers paid similar attention and reported alike. Vasterman et al.

(2005) further adopted media hypes and social amplification of risk and framing to study

influences of Bijlmermeer plane crash. They compared the number of articles on the plane

crash in national Dutch dailies with the cumulative number of residents reporting of

disaster-related health problems. They claimed that residents linked their health problems

with disasters and concentrated media hypes contributed to the growth of a new functional

somatic syndrome.

However, Vastermans ambiguous definition of magnification and amplification and

non-exclusive categories of incident-related and thematically related news were found

problematic. The thematically related news was divided into media- and source-generated.

He thought thematically related news defined non-factual and background articles related

to the incident, especially media-generated ones, would dominate news wave soon. But,

source-oriented news can also make media hypes (Ruigrok et al. 2009).

Thus, Wien and Elmelund-Praestekaer (2009) decided to abandon the criterion of origin

and identify media hypes using only the criterion of intensity in coverage of a single issue.

They applied issue attention cycle and agenda setting which focused more on how to make

issues and events salient. This study adopted this definition.

An event that has the potential to trigger a media hype usually matches the common

news values, holds violation of norms, is easy to evoke public debate and suitable for

media to cover it from different perspectives (Wien and Elmelund-Praestekaer 2009). Wei

Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957 41

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et al. (2009) found the preferred news values in disaster reporting. They took 112 disasters

as examples and found that the factors that increase the possibility of growth of news

stories include disaster types, newsworthy materials, disaster severity, and economic

development of the affected area.

As Fig. 1a shows, in communication study, the research has found the consequence of

the media hype. But a little has found the reasons why those events are covered in a great

amount (Elmelund-Praestekaer and Wien 2008). The previous discussion sheds some lights

on the emergence of the star-affected areas. Putting into disaster context, creating the

star areas is also one type of media hypes. Why do journalists cover those areas more,

not others? What are the characteristics of star areas and the consequences? All the

answers are unknown.

2.2 Media and disaster management

Media has been expected as a trusted source of information for the most vulnerable in

disasters (Rattien 1990; Miles and Morse 2007; Romo-murphy et al. 2011). Media should

deliver information and instructions to residents in affected and non-affected areas and also

information for response workers and administrators before, during, and after disasters.

Media is also good for public education, early warning, evacuation, and post-disaster

relief. Each stage of DM (mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery) requires different

types of information for different actors, including authority, residents, community, and

(a) Communication (b) Disaster

(c) Disaster

Consequence

Media hype

?

Media

Disaster management

?

The failures of Disaster management

Community-based program

Benefits to Disaster Management

Fig. 1 The separate models forcommunication research anddisaster research on media anddisaster management

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organization (Okamoto 2004; Sekito 2004). Each type of media has its function. Radio and

television provide urgent information and updates (Wei et al. 2010), newspapers offer details

and retainable information (Choi and Lin 2008), internet communication is good for inter-

action and individualized information (Tanner et al. 2009).

Local TV, newspapers, and radio are expected to be more useful and efficient resources of

disaster information. Rashid (2011) conducted content analysis of Winnipeg Press reports on

the 1950 and 1997 floods in Red River Valley, Canada, and found that the local news media

tended to cover disasters with rich contexts which offer the causes of disaster and the

influences on the residents. Romo-murphy et al. (2011) also interviewed residents in Ache,

Indonesia and found local radio provides immediate information and action plan, especially

the programs were locally produced during and after the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster. No

single one is helpful enough for DM. Recent research encourages a multimedia approach and

community participation to facilitate survival strategies (Romo-murphy et al. 2011).

Little research has found out the possible side effects of media coverage and the

negative influences. Miles and Morse (2007) claimed that four types of capital are usually

emphasized in recovery strategies, namely built, human, natural, and social. The national

newspapers and television tended to cover built and social capital more; on the other hand,

local newspapers and television cover built, human, and social altogether. The local media

provided more relevant stories for the residents. It is worthy of noting that the natural

capital is often covered less; nevertheless, it essentially helps residents to understand the

ecosystem and environment and to shape risk perception.

Choi and Lin (2008) also found that newspaper coverage seldom mentioned the

expected results of taking recommended plans to reduce uncertainty among the general

public, which caused their reluctance to take preventive action. As Fig. 1b shows, the

current research has not articulated how media can play an important role in DM or how

media would impede DM. This study illustrated how to examine medias influences and

consequences by identifying the scenario: star disaster-affected areas.

In this study, the influences of star disaster-affected areas might be the possible

reasons of failures of DM. Thus, this study does not only indicate how media hypes (star

areas) impede DM, but also observe how communities respond to the failure of DM. As

Fig. 1c shows, in disaster study, research often deals with how to prevent the failure of DM

and finds the solution to benefit DM. In disaster study, some research has found that

resident stakeholders (Chen et al. 2006) or community-based approach plans (Lee and

Chen 2011) are essential to strengthen community resistance and facilitate DM (Kim and

Kang 2010). Ikeda et al. (2008) participatory platform for disaster risk communication

provided assistance for residents and other stakeholders disaster preparedness.

As research suggested, empowering the community has the positive effects in disaster

prevention, mitigation, preparedness, and response. In order to know influences of star

areas in a large context, this study conducted in-depth interview and field research in

Taitung areas to compare star areas with non-star areas based upon the community

empowerment to see the differences of residents reactions.

3 An interdisciplinary framework of communication and disaster

This study would like to analyze star areas with a holistic vision to integrate commu-

nication research with disaster research as an interdisciplinary study. Unlike the traditional

views, this study would not take media as a tool for DM only, which suggests that media is

a source for residents to get useful information, disaster awareness, and disaster

Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957 43

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preparation, a tool for public relations persons or authority to operate for risk management.

Communication as a boarder discipline covering media study contributes various

approaches to study elements in disasters.

The early linear communication model, sender-message-channel-receiver-effect

(SMCRE), already embraces key issues in disaster study, such as survivors and residents in

vulnerable areas (sender and receiver: audiences studies), media message and disaster

information (message: journalism, science communication, information study), disaster

platforms (channel: information study, mediated communication), efficacy (effect: mass

communication), let along the refined model emphasize interactions (small group com-

munication), cultural differences (intercultural/international communication), scenarios

(risk/crisis communication), and empowerment (participatory communication).

Take hazard maps as example, they are critical information for residents decision

making, which should be easy to access, understand, and use. However, disaster studies do

not pay much attention to these principles. Disaster study has ignored scenarios (such as

disaster types, vulnerable areas, senders, receivers, and et al.), message (content and for-

mat), and technology (channels, accessibility, usability, presentation, and et al.) of disaster

information but to establishing different types of hardware and systems without consid-

ering the issues which communication research deals with. There are so much that com-

munication study can contribute to DM. Thus, as a communication scholar, this author

would provide implications under this interdisciplinary approach.

Ikeda et al. (2008) also proposed an interdisciplinary management framework of risk

analysis for emerging disasters. The interdisciplinary research gauges both scientific and

sociocultural factors to allow profound integration of the diverse risk perceptions and

evaluations among the stakeholders. Their finding stressed the importance of interdisci-

plinary study.

To sum up, in Fig. 1, issues that (ac) shows are interrelated and consequential but

under the separate research approach, disaster and communication, neither of these two

studies can elaborate issues thoroughly. This study tries to find out the emergence of star-

affected areas and takes it as a scenario to examine how well rounded the interdisciplinary

study could depict and explain the star-affected area phenomenon.

Research questions

Under the interdisciplinary approach, there are five research questions listed below:

1. What are the differences of star disaster-affected areas between government

document and media coverage?

2. Why did the journalists cover star disaster-affected areas

3. What are the consequences of forming star disaster-affected areas by media?

4. How do residents in star areas and non-star areas perceive the consequences and

find remedies?

5. What are the implications for disaster management?

4 Methods

The research was carried out in three main parts: a content analysis of four major news-

papers of their Typhoon Morakot coverage for a month period, the field research in Taimali

Creek riverbank areas, and a series of interviews with residents in disaster-affected areas,

journalists who cover them and their managers.

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The coverage from Typhoon Morakot gave chances to discover which affected areas are

reported most frequently. Unit of analysis is the name of impacted area in each news story,

not including editorials, opinions, and feature stories. Compared with the top rainfalls and

casualty reports from government, the most reported areas would be presented

chronologically.

The four major newspapers are all with high circulations. They are Apple Daily, The

Liberty Times, China Times, and United Daily News. This study chose 30 days (Aug. 4

Sept. 3) of the four newspapers to analyze the most covered areas during Typhoon Mor-

akot. The author and two master students did the analysis from Aug. 1 to Aug. 14, 2010.

This study chose Taimali Creek riverbank areas as research field since the areas were

affected by several typhoons, especially Typhoon Haitang in 2005 and Typhoon Morakot

in 2009. The damaged, casualty, and property loss caused by Typhoon Haitang were

seldom reported. However, the areas were frequently reported during Typhoon Morakot.

Six local journalists and two managers from the Press and the television news channels,

and six affected residents were interviewed. By means of triangulation, this study tried to

cross-examine the emergence of star disaster-affected areas and the subsequent conse-

quences. The field research was conducted from Oct. 15, 2010 to Jul. 30, 2011. The

interviews were carried out three times in Dec. 2010, April and July 2011.

5 Results and discussion

5.1 The comparison between press coverage and government documents

The 30-day analysis showed that the four major newspapers simultaneously cover some

particular areas, namely Kaohsiung, Pingtung, and Taitung (see Table 1). According to

death toll, Chiayi should be covered more than Taitung but only China Times have more

stories about Chiayi than Taitung. Pingtung has not given enough notices compared with

the ratio of death toll in Taitung. The Liberty Time even has more stories about Taitung

than Pingtung.

Table 1 The comparisons of news coverage and government statistical reports in five affected areas

Chiayi Kaohsiung Pingtung Taitung Nantou Total

Death toll 193 %

51185 %

458 %

71 %

163 %

598100 %

Top 10 Rainfalls 1, 3, 6, 9 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 2

Numbers in top 81 1620 %

2025 %

1316 %

34 %

1215 %

United Daily News 17317 %

38037 %

21120 %

18017 %

889 %

1032100 %

The Liberty Times 10713 %

31739 %

14518 %

20325 %

496 %

821100 %

China Times 7417 %

17740 %

11626 %

5613 %

245 %

447100 %

Apple Daily 3616 %

10347 %

3817 %

3616 %

84 %

221100 %

Total 39015 %

97739 %

51020 %

47519 %

1697 %

2521100 %

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If the top 10 rainfalls and top 81 rainfalls are taken into consideration, it seems that

Chiayi County has more affected areas and 4 of them are on the top 10 rankings while there

was no area of Taitung listing in the top 10 rainfalls records. As for the death toll, there is

3 % in Chiayi and only 1 % in Taitung. However, Chiayi only attracts average 15 % out of

all coverage from the four newspapers. The same situation happened to Nantou, with more

death roll and affected areas than Taitung. But there is only 7 % of coverage from the

analyzed newspapers far less than Taitung (19 %).

Why Taitung became so important for the media? In the morning of Aug. 8, 2009, when

other affected buildings started suffered flooding nearly one floor height, the building of

Kinshi Hotel in Chihpen, Taitung, was already damaged by the flooding, and finally

washed away at 9 a.m. in front of eyes of residents and media. Later, in another affected

area in Taitung, called Chialan, two houses were also washed away by the strong waves

from Taimali in the afternoon of Aug. 9, 2009. Same as residents in Chihpen, residents in

Chialan moved out from the houses earlier and waited outside to see the astonishing

phenomenon. By that time, the most severe damaged area, Shiaolin Village has not yet

found.

These two video clips became focal points. There were no other areas having these

dramatic damages and such accessibility for the media. The so-call donut effect (Sekito

2004: 35) might be one of the reasons of creating star areas. Some affected areas, which

still have connection with outside world, could be reported first, but they are usually not the

most severe sites which lose contacts due to serious damages. Pingtung and Taitung were

the affected areas which still stayed in touch and accessible. These two areas turned out to

be the frequently reported ones in the beginning of Typhoon Morakot.

Tables 2, 3, 4 and 5 give an idea how Taitung was covered by four major newspapers.

Taitung seems a superstar among others, especially one day after the crashing of Kinshi

Hotel and wash-away of Chialan houses, namely Aug. 9 and Aug. 10. Except the coverage

on Aug. 10 of Apple Daily, Taitung was reported with higher frequency than Chiayi and

Nantou. Nantou was covered less than Taitung in these 2 days by the four newspapers.

On Aug. 10, the buried tragedy of Shiaolin Village happened at 5 a.m. on Aug. 9 was

finally covered by the Apple Daily as the front-page scoop report. Before that, no other

Press or broadcasting media found the incident. This showed how donut effect influenced

media reporting during Typhon Morakot. Then, all the Press and broadcasting media

started to dig news in the areas. The other three newspapers had enormous increases of

coverage in Kaohsiung either on Aug. 11 or the following days. Overall, the Liberty Time

with the against-ruling-party stance did a better job on uncovering the disaster-affected

Table 2 Apple Dailys coverageof five counties in the first 7 days

Apple Daily Kaohsiung Pingtung Chiayi Nantou Taitung

2009/8/8 0 2 0 1 1

2009/8/9 2 4 0 0 6

2009/8/10 12 12 9 2 6

2009/8/11 6 3 7 0 0

2009/8/12 13 3 2 1 5

2009/8/13 15 5 1 1 1

2009/8/14 8 1 2 1 1

Total: 133 56 30 21 6 20

46 Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957

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areas; however, it still focused less on Chiayi and Nantou. And Apple Daily did not ignore

Chiayi as much as other three counterparts but proportionally it still covered less in Chiayi

and Nantou.

In addition, this study also found the Press tented to keep tracing on these areas with

visual impacts. It is worthwhile of noticing that there were several affected areas in

Taitung, but the Press was only interested in Chialan and Chipen townships. According to

Taitung County Government,1 the major affected areas by Typhoon Morakot were Taimali

Table 3 The Liberty Timescoverage of five counties in thefirst 7 days

The LibertyTimes

Kaohsiung Pingtung Chiayi Nantou Taitung

2009/8/8 10 18 4 3 12

2009/8/9 18 20 13 8 14

2009/8/10 25 12 12 7 11

2009/8/11 23 9 5 4 26

2009/8/12 27 9 8 5 15

2009/8/13 33 2 3 1 8

2009/8/14 22 3 10 3 17

Total: 420 158 73 55 31 103

Table 4 China Times coverageof five counties in the first 7 days

China Times Kaohsiung Pingtung Chiayi Nantou Taitung

2009/8/8 3 4 4 0 1

2009/8/9 3 8 0 2 4

2009/8/10 7 11 2 0 6

2009/8/11 22 16 10 1 8

2009/8/12 10 9 5 5 3

2009/8/13 19 5 8 0 4

2009/8/14 17 9 8 2 8

Total: 224 81 62 37 10 34

Table 5 United Daily Newscoverage of five counties in thefirst 7 days

United DailyNews

Kaohsiung Pingtung Chiayi Nantou Taitung

2009/8/8 12 6 4 2 2

2009/8/9 14 21 8 1 10

2009/8/10 33 29 10 9 13

2009/8/11 44 18 17 9 15

2009/8/12 31 15 15 6 14

2009/8/13 13 16 11 9 7

2009/8/14 14 7 13 4 7

Total: 459 161 112 78 40 68

1 http://www.taitung.gov.tw/morakot/newsdatil.aspx?SN=16702

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County (1 township), Jinfeng County (1 township), Dawu County (4 townships and one

tribe), Daren County (2 townships), three famous Hot Springs areas in Beinan County

(Chipen Hot Springs) and Taimali County (Jinrong Hot Springs), and Red-leave Hot

Springs in Yanping along Luye Creeks.

There were only 28 stories mentioning about Dawu, the most affected area. As for

Daren County located in remote area, there was no report at all in the first 7 days. It

showed that reporters cover disaster in terms of visual impact and accessibility first and

severity and other reasons then. In Table 6, this study further found that the Press not only

prefer visual-impacted and accessible areas but also fancy well-known areas, such as Hot

Springs in Luye area.

Based upon the previous findings, it goes without saying that star areas phenomenon does

exist. The Press tended to cover some areas with visual impacts, accessibility and being well-

known areas originally. Those, which were damaged much severely, would not even be

covered if none of the conditions were satisfied. The Liberty Times and United Daily News

devoted more to cover Chiayi and Nantou and cover Luye and Dawu more than other two

newspapers. It is worthwhile examining the newsroom routines. In addition, how do the media

think about star areas, and what are their attitudes toward it? What are the consequences of

star areas? Those questions will be answered based upon the field research in affected areas

in Taitung and in-depth interviews with residents, journalists, and their managers.

5.2 The sensational news values and donut effect determine where and how to cover

The in-depth interviews shows that some media meant to hype the Morakot Typhoon news

for different reasons, including circulation/rating, newsroom routines, and political stances.

Most of the interviewees admitted that their newsroom was eager for sensational news and

countless stories to fill up the 24-h news hole no matter what kind of media they work for,

newspapers or broadcasting. Few interviewees (Journalists A and B) mentioned that their

newsroom asked them to cover disaster with the perspective of DM or help residents first.

Journalists A and B work as a team in an ethnical channel of public broadcasting system

mentioned that the shocked image of houses falling down into Taimali Creek was taken by

their colleague, and he encouraged the manager to share the video with other TV channels

and foreign media. They were enthusiastic about the shocking images not because of the

ratings. They thought it would help their indigenous fellows to catch attentions.

My indigenous fellows in this area have experienced lots of disasters and losses

caused by typhoons and flooding. None of them was paid enough attentions. Officers

from local and central government forced them to agree on their arbitrary recovery

plan with no respect on affected-residents needs. With this video clip by chance,

Table 6 The four newspaperscoverage on Taitung in the first7 days

Luye Dawu Beinan includingChipen

Jinfeng includingChialan

United DailyNews

1 12 25 41

The LibertyTimes

2 14 22 44

China Times 0 2 6 16

Apple Daily 0 0 6 5

Total 3 28 59 106

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residents can have dialogue with government officials and be in charge of their

community recovery plan. (Journalist A)

Journalist B knew the advantages of reporting an effected area in tremendously large

volumes, but was also aware of the disadvantages of doing so.

During Typhoon Morakot, there were several places flooded, such as Dawu, Tai-

mali, and other areas in Jinfeng. But media ignored the other areas. The consequence

might be that money was sent to star areas, and residents cannot win government

officials respect with no media help. Over-reporting one particular area also meant

that the rest impacted areas no longer existed. (Journalist B)

These two journalists are exceptional cases. Most interviewees were like journalist C.

He knew what he reported influenced a lot; thus, he wanted to cover more areas. But the

editing desk in Taipei did not allow him to report areas other than Chialan and Chipen. He

said:

The time and space strains forced editors and reporters to select partial stories for

audiences. The chosen news values are by and large prominent, dramatic effects, and

nowadays visual impacts. In such a vicious circle, only some areas would be reported

more and would be continuously reported. It seemed that nothing happened in the

rest areas. (Journalist C)

Journalist D works in a 24-h news channel revealed that after Aug. 10th, 2009, media

have found that the major disaster happened in Shiaolin Village of Kaohsiung County,

including more than 300 people missing and the whole village buried by landslide. The

focus point moved to that area.

I was aware of the severe damages in Dawu but in order to catch up with the

deadline, I had no choice but to cover Jinfeng mostly. And when Shiaolin was

discovered on Aug. 10th, all the attention shifted. I still had no chance to cover other

areas in Taitung.(Journalist D)

Speaking the truth, I dont know what I can report except sensational news. It is

easier for me and I will not make mistakes or be blamed by the editors. If other

reporters went to Chipen and Chialan and I went to Dawu for instances and my

editors saw their news and figure it out we dont have that, they would not appreciate

what I did but scold me on missing the important news. That is competition!

(Journalist E)

The journalist D mentioned that his manager would not allow him to cover an area with

too much uncertainty. The journalist D claimed that he was not sure if he could make it to

Dawu and came back to make the news story at the same day, let along catching the

deadline of evening program. His manager (manager A) explained the reasons:

The 24-hour news channel is a big news hole. We need to make sure every time my

man goes out and does get some news back. I would not let one journalist to cover

one affected area which is not that severe than its counterparts and also very far. It is

not efficiency and safe at all. I know that it is not fair but I need to help the victims

who want help badly, and at the same time, I have to make sure the channel runs

well. (Manager A)

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After the transportation recovered, the interviewed journalists did not go back to cover

the other Townships. Journalists and managers explained the reasons, including new events

coming up, limited resources and ratings.

I am the only journalist of my company in Taitung. After the Typhoon, the manager

assigned one team from Taipei to support me; however, they stayed only one day.

Right After the discovery of Shiaolin, the manager reassigned the team to Kaohsiung

immediately to report latest news. How can I cover other areas in Taitung by myself?

Even though I make efforts to cover them, the manager still ignores it. It is not

worthwhile. (Journalist D)

I have limited reporters and resources and they should be put in the right position. It

is not possible to have old news every day. What have not shown on the screen,

especially news about Shiaolin was more important. Besides, speaking the truth, we

were afraid that if we cover areas where no shocking video could be taken, audiences

might lose interests and change channels. (Manager A)

We did cover some non-star areas; nevertheless, the rating decreased. When we

reported the so-called star areas again, the rating increases, which means audiences

loves to see it. (Manager B)

Except two journalists from the ethnical media, none of the interviewed journalists are

aware of possible roles for media to help or hinder DM as soon as the disaster happened.

They admitted that the covered news was seldom from the perspectives of residents need,

mostly from newsrooms and themselves.

5.3 To be or not to be, that is the question for journalists

Although in the beginning of disaster, interviewed journalists did not know how their

reports might influence residents, authorities, even the outside supports, and resources,

with the emergence of star-affected areas, they were gradually aware of their power.

Because of our news coverage, some of self-help organizations got help from

outside and then learned how to deal with the media. They learned arranging pseudo-

event and writing public relations news to journalists. For example: self-help orga-

nizations planned a joint harvest festival after disasters as well as the following

anniversaries to get more media attention for possible outside resources. I dont mind

being taken advantage by residents, if that is the way to help them recover from

disasters. (Journalist D)

The disaster-affected township I covered would like to follow the successful path of

the self-help organization in other township to attract more government and non-

government resources. In order to help them, I discussed willingly with the leader

and gave them some examples of successful casesI am aware of being objective asa journalist but I just cannot help but do so. Besides, I also get benefit from it as I will

have new stories to cover. (Journalist E)

Some journalist noticed that those who did not cover by the media seemed to have fewer

resources and tried to make efforts.

It is really beyond my capability to help every affected area. But now I know that

the reported one would have more resources and cares. It goes without saying that I

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will be very careful for my future reporting and try to help more areas instead of

over-reporting one particular area. (Journalist C)

The more we report, the more resources residents obtain. No matter Chipen,

Chalan, or Shiaolin, right after our coverage, legislators, Prime Minister, and the

President visited the areas and brought more resources for the residents. I tried not to

cover the same area but looked up those in remote areas with no interesting story

and pictures. I helped them to find a niche for me to report it, such as how they

have shared left food and lived together in an indigenous tradition since their village

was destroyed. The story was so interesting and no one including editors and readers

would ignore it. It is better than simply describe what they have encountered which is

usually not as serious as other star areas. (Journalist F)

Two Press journalists thought that newspaper did a better job to help residents. They

had more journalists working in the affected areas and they provided more information

compared to their broadcasting counterparts. But both of them admitted that the news-

rooms planed to hype the Morakot Typhoon news.

The newsroom asked us to write as much as possible to show how bad affected

areas were. It would be better to find out places that other media did not know so

that I had chances to cover areas other than Chipan and Chialan. Due to my

companys stances, the editors tried to embarrass the ruling party and to give the

impression that the government was not capable of disaster prevention and reac-

tion. (Journalist E)

I hate to say that it was a big moment for journalists to come across such a big

disaster. My newsroom decided to have more disaster news than other competitors

and we did have more news stories and covered more areas at least in my responsible

area. Some of the areas were too dangerous to approach, but in order to get scoop, I

did my level best. (Journalist F)

From previous finding, the study found that some journalists did not know their power

of reporting and were not aware of their assistance to build up star areas. Some knew

their influences but cannot cover other areas due to newsroom routines. Some tried to help

the non-star areas to be covered and even come up with some good stories for them.

Others tired to hype the news for their media interests politically or financially.

No matter what kind of journalists they were, two things needed to be concerned. One is

lack of professionalism and objectivism. There should be a revisit to traditional journalism

theory and ethics. Disaster news is different from criminal or justice news. With its

ongoing and enduring characteristics, journalists need to help the society by providing

information and help. Does helping the affected areas mean losing professionalism and

objectivism? The line should be clarified.

The other is journalists at risk entering the disaster-affected areas with bare hands.

With no training and equipments, journalists want to or are forced to find uncover areas,

which puts them in danger. They are encouraged to report non-star areas, but it does not

mean to cover dangerous areas with bare hands. The differences should be made. Without

second thoughts on these two points, journalists face the dilemmato be or not to be

helping residents.

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5.4 Get reported or die for lacking resources

Based on 15-month field research, the study found the benefits to be a star and con-

sequences to be a non-star. Take star areas, Chialan as an example, Lovely Taiwan

Foundation2 involved with Chialan recovery plans right after the Morakot Typhoon. They

have helped Chialan Village Self-help Recovery Committee3 operating and fund-raising.

The Self-help organization unprecedentedly managed local residents from Chialan and

professionals from the Green Team to be citizen journalists to tell their own stories with

their own tribe views, called Kaaluwan.4

Kaaluwan has covered the processes of recovery since September 2009, including

negotiation between residents and government officers, traditional indigenous activities,

local industry development, and residents life after disaster. The video clips are also

posted on Taiwan Citizen Journalism Platform5 launched by Public Broadcasting System

in Taiwan; therefore, the news is seen by many people and sometimes turns to be news

topic of mainstream media.

With the solidarity united by the Committee, the residents negotiated housing styles,

location, and management of temporary and permanent housing with Township Office and

County Government. When residents found that they were forced to agree with something

they dislike, they started to fight for their own rights through Press conferences or activities

on social media. It appeared media and public attention successfully.

The different case is Fushan Tribe from Dawu Township. The indigenous residents did

not have much time and power to negotiate with authorities, and the whole tribe was

moved out of their familiar mountain areas to a new location without detail inspection right

after the disaster. The new location is located in the town areas near seashore where most

of non-indigenous with different culture reside. There are no public places for their daily

gathering and most importantly no cultivated fields for farming.

They have experienced more grievances about the housing styles. Those indigenous

residents who would like to have housing styles similar to their traditional ones. However,

with no strong disputes against decision made by authorities and relative actors, it turned

out that their houses are smaller and less delicate than their counterparts. The extreme

humidness in summer and strong wind in winter make residents have hard time living.

Those indigenous residents used to use traditional wisdom and local tectonic to build

houses and villages, which is good for tribe cohesion, for preventing from dangers and for

fighting extreme weather conditions. Nowadays, they lost their traditions in this new-built

village.

Resident E in Fushan tribe mentioned that old generations are very grateful for what

they have received from authorities but young generations know how unfair the distri-

butions are.

Due to the collapse of Taiho Bridge, journalists cannot reach us from Taitung City

at the first time. We received late rescues and less help. But even after reconnection

of Taiho Bridge, there was no media coming to us. Compared to tribes in Chialan and

Daniao, we had low-quality permanent housing and bad location of rebuilt com-

munity. We are orphans produced by media. (Resident E)

2 http://www.lovelytaiwan.org.tw/index.php?class=lw&func=about3 http://www.kaaluwan88.tw/4 http://www.peopo.org/kaaluwan5 http://www.peopo.org/

52 Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957

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There is one more case showing the differences and unfairness between star areas and

non-star areas. Before Typhoon Morakot, Typhoon Haitang caused flooding in Taimali

Creek and destroyed local health center of township, 16 houses and a church in Chialan

village in Jinfeng Township of Taitung County in 2005 and those impacted residents did

not receive prefabricated housing, let alone a real home back to their indigenous com-

munity in 4 years. Compared to their counterparts influenced by Typhoon Morakot, they

got their temporary housing in one month and long-term housing was done in 2012.

One resident who lost his house in 2005 Typhoon Haitang pointed out the disadvantage

of not being star areas:

Unlike the victims from Typhoon Morakot, our situations did not attract medias

attention. With no coverage and criticisms, individuals, NGOs, local government,

and central government cannot feel the urgency. There were poor donations and

resources into this area. (Resident A)

The other resident influenced by Typhoon Morakot, who is also one of the leaders in the

Committee of Chialan, explained how media help them facilitate disaster recovery.

The two dramatic wash-away scenes happened in Chialan and Chipen did draw

eyeballs. Some individuals and NGOs contacted us actively to offer financial support

and resources due to media report. They motivated and encouraged us to establish

self-help organization to make use of resources. We also learned how to draw

medias notices, which helped us to speak out loud about our stances and thoughts to

benefit our village and community. (Resident B)

It seems that star areas have advantages. Is there any disadvantage? Resident C

indicated that being a star area enjoys notices and resources but threatens other areas

normal living. Given that there are limited resources of Taitung Country, officers would

rather put money and strengths on the famous and frequently reported areas. However, the

officers expected the star areas to be a role model of re-built village as their accom-

plishments and rushed the process of recovery.

We preferred the location of our temporary housing in Chengshin Village as per-

manent one; however, in order to ensuring the locations of temporary housing right

after the disaster, we did not have enough time to negotiate with the leaders in this

village. It means that we need to move to permanent housing two years later.

(Resident C)

Resident D also took the location of Chialan permanent housing as example and sus-

pected authorities rush decision making without second thought and detail scrutiny.

There is a creek around the permanent houses. I cannot image if there is another big

rainfall, what will happen? Besides, the private lands located in the area were expropriated

with compensation given at the market price thereof; however, on the perspectives of

indigenous residents, lands are much more important than money compensation. Authority

tried to make sure the location of permanent housing as soon as possible and ignore this

fact in their hurry expropriating process without thinking other compensation, such as land

replacement. (Resident D)

Residents who did not get media attention but still want fair resource distributions are

recommended to have their own self-help organization to negotiate with actors involving

with the recovery process. Resident F from Daniao tribe in Dawu Township mentioned

their successful strategy to fight their own right.

Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957 53

123

We, not only 14 affected households and other residents did not agree with the

proposal of re-designated areas from Township Hall and proposed our plan instead.

When the temporary housing were ready, two households were unqualified to move

in, we decided to move in altogether and negotiated with the NGO, which helped to

build and manage the housing. They finally respected our decision and allowed 14

households to move in together. With no coverage but cohesive, we still can fight for

our rights. However, to be honest, we lack outside resources till our story covered by

media. (Resident F)

According to field research and in-depth interviews with residents, this study finds that

residents recognize that if they do not strive for media attention and get reported no matter

in the beginning or later of the disaster, they would struggle with lacking resources and

assistances. Being residents in the star areas, they find some disadvantages hampering

recovery and renovation process. The common solution for being noticed in a preferable

way is organizing self-help organization in their community negotiating with media,

NGOs, and authorities. Residents in the self-help organization should be clever enough to

know politics among different actors and to figure out when they should be cooperative or

hold back in accordance with scenarios to strive for better results.

6 Conclusion

This study has confirmed the existing of star disaster-affected areas and its consequences

through an interdisciplinary approach. Media hypes are common on disaster news. Star

areas seem to be the second-wave hype. Media prefers shocking video and pictures and

continues reporting them sensationally with large amounts to create star areas. Ironi-

cally, some newsrooms provoke media hypes because of political stances and competition

covered more non-star areas. The study also found that as long as getting covered by

media, residents from affected areas received more supports and resources. Therefore,

residents from non-star areas tried to get medias attention.

Being residents in star areas, they still face some difficulties. Not only residents but

also related authorities and NGOs received too much attention, which forces them to do

quick decision without considering residents need thoughtfully. As show in Fig. 2, the

factors of media hypes, in this study, the causes of star areas were not only from the

areas of communication, but also from the areas of disaster such as visual impacts and the

disaster donut effect. And the consequences in the communication model, shown in

Fig. 1a, were clearly identified as failures of disaster management in the interdisciplinary

model. The Fig. 1b model was also confirmed that media is not always good for DM in

Fig. 2.

In order to fight for resources and attentions, residents who manage their own self-help

organization could defense against the rush recovery process and earned more respects and

benefits. In Fig. 1c, disaster research has found community-based programs would be

beneficial to disaster management. In Fig. 2, this study adopted different research approach

and methods in communication study to depict the progress of community-based programs,

namely the operation of self-help organization.

The Self-help organization also works in non-star areas. The Self-help organization

unites all the residents to create a better living environment; moreover, it cooperates with

media to be covered and then draws authorities attention and NGOs supports. It sheds the

light to disaster-affected residents that they should be aware of their vulnerable areas and

54 Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957

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have connections with media in advance so they can be noticed when disasters happen.

During the disaster, residents should come together for self-help and then address the needs

to appeal to outside supports from different actors. After the disaster, the self-help orga-

nization should be responsible for standing up for community benefits in the recovery and

renovation process.

The implication for media is that preparation makes perfect. Journalists are expected to

know disaster-affected areas well. Without scrutiny and social networking beforehand,

journalists cannot get damaged information immediately from affected areas, which causes

that journalists might choose to cover accessible areas and leave losing-contact areas alone

as donut effect described. Moreover, with more available information, pictures, video, and

interviewees, media can cover more areas where they consider as zero news originally. It

reduced possibility to form star-affected areas.

Media has to play more positive roles in DM by providing disaster information before,

during, and after disasters. In this study, few residents mentioned they obtained useful

information from media for their decision making. Before disasters, the interviewed

affected areas were too small or unimportant to be mentioned. During or after disasters, the

interviewed areas were not as severe as other areas and then ignored. Media should have

second thoughts on what they have reported and the following consequences, and also on

what they have not reported and the costs.

Disaster management authority is encouraged to cooperate with media especially local

media. Local media, such as radio, is proved to be good sources when disasters happen

(Romo-Murphy et al. 2011). Media persons in local media are familiar with local areas,

and programs are broadcasted in relative small areas. Residents have more chances to get

Visual impacts

Newsroom routines

Disaster scenarios

Star affected areas

The failures of Disaster management

Non-star areas

Resident/Self-help organization

Benefits to Disaster Management

Comm

unication and disaster interdisciplinary study

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 2 The interdisciplinary framework of star disaster-affected areas influences in disaster management

Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957 55

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information about their community. Their area would not be too small or unimportant to be

covered. Authority can provide information to local media to help residents for disaster

prevention, preparedness, mitigation, and recovery. With easy access to local media,

residents could express their opinions, concerns, and needs regarding disaster information.

Disaster management authorities, especially those from local government should play

the bridge role between residents/self-help organization and other actors. The very goal is

to make sure local wisdom, local culture, and local people are valued in the whole DM.

As for the implication for research, as a journalism scholar, the author has proposed to

revisit journalism ethics and theory to fit in the characteristics of disaster news. Thus,

journalists would have theory basis to work on disaster news and help residents properly.

As also a communication scholar, the author recommends a new paradigm of disaster and

communication research called disaster and communication interdisciplinary study. In this

point of views, media should not be taken as tools only. Communication research and

disaster studies need to be integrated with each other to develop easy, accessible, under-

standable, user- and scenario-fitting disaster informatics and to encourage community

participation. The interdisciplinary study facilitates DM, which helps residents developing

awareness, knowledge, response capacity, participation, and resilience and other actors to

work efficiently and effectively.

This research merely examined four major newspapers. As a matter of fact, television news

is even more notorious than their Press counterparts in terms of pursuing sensational reports and

ignoring needs of DM. Additionally, people in Taiwan access more 24-h news channel than

newspapers. The future research could pay attention to television news coverage.

Due to resources refrains, this study did not include in-depth interviews of government

officers of DM and analyze the budget distribution from central and local governments to

see if the coverage of star disaster-affected areas influenced their decision making of

mitigation and recovery plan of affected areas. It is worthwhile of future research.

Acknowledgments This study is funded by National Science Council (#99-2625-M-004-003-). The authorwould like to thank the reviewers and those who have helped this study all over the world.

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