The Mass Media and Disaster Awareness in Puerto Rico

Abstract

Most of the literature about disasters assumes that the media are the most important mitigation tool for manager officials because its content creates disaster and risk awareness. This assumption proposes only three actors in the process of effective disaster management: the government officials that generate disaster information, the media that transmit it, and the public, who receives the information and acts accordingly. A case study of a flood in a rural community in Puerto Rico suggests that this model is inefficient in explaining how disaster awareness is created and how this relates to effective disaster mitigation. The data suggest that the literature fails to recognize important factors that increase or even create vulnerability to hazards. It also neglects other important actors, such as community leaders, and the actions of other groups and institutions that have indirect impact in generating the disaster situation.