Americans turn to the media during natural disasters and severe weather as a source of information. Radio and television provide information on where an earthquake occurred and how strong it was, whether a tornado watch or warning is in effect, and which direction hurricanes and tropical storms are headed. Few dispute the importance of media coverage in these instances, and the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) evolved to take advantage of the ability of mass media to quickly inform thousands and even millions of individual about potential problems in their region. However, the media's coverage of disasters extends into the aftermath of the disaster, with information about the extent and cost of the damage, speculation about who (or what) was responsible for the event, and interviews with families who have been devastated both materially and emotionally sometimes moments after the event. In addition, scrutiny has also been focused on the media's presence at disaster sites and the complications that the presence can cause for relief efforts. This research examines the various roles that the media plays in reporting disasters (both those which occur naturally and those which are caused by man), and considers two disasters, the sinking of the Titanic and the recent crash of ValuJet Flight 592, in detail with regard to the role that the media played in those events.
The sinking of the Titanic is notable for several firsts: it was the first time that the SOS signal was used by the radioman, and the first time that news of a disaster of this magnitude was spread by the "wireless." However, while competing news organizations scrambled to be first to press with the information of the sinking, initial reports were far from accurate. For example, newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, including the New York Sun, led with the heading, "Aall Saved from Titanic After Collision," when the truth was that more than 1,000 people died in...