Disasters and the Media

International charity Oxfam notes that in the past 20 years the number of global disasters, from the Indian Ocean tsunami to the major earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, has quadrupled. As the speed of news dissemination greatly increases, how the media handles disasters is becoming more important. But as Pantti (media and global communication, U. of Helsinki), Wahl-Jorgensen (reader, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies), and Cottle (media and communications, Cardiff U.) note, there is no consensus on styles of reporting. This work covers the journalistic possibilities raised by the increasing presence of social media and new more compassionate styles of communication. Ultimately it places disaster reporting in the larger realms of social, economic and political realities. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Mervi Pantti is Associate Professor and Director of the International Master’s Programme in Media and Global Communication in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. She has published on mediated emotions, crisis reporting, digital visual culture and participatory media. Her latest book is Amateur Images and Global News (with Kari Anden-Papadopoulos, 2011).
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen holds a PhD in Communication from Stanford University and is currently a Reader at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. She is the author of Journalists and the Public (2007) and Citizens or Consumers? (with Justin Lewis and Sanna Inthorn, 2005) and the editor of books including The Handbook of Journalism Studies (with Thomas Hanitzsch, 2009). She is currently working on a volume titled Emotions, Media and Public Participation.
Simon Cottle is Professor of Media and Communications and Deputy Head of the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. His latest books are Transnational Protests and the Media (Peter Lang, 2011), edited with Libby Lester, Global Crisis Reporting (2009) and Mediatized Conflicts (2006). He is series editor of the Global Crises and the Media Series for Peter Lang Publishing.