Survivors’ experiences of journalists and media exposure A retrospective qualitative study 15 years after a ferry disaster

• Published in: Disaster prevention and management Vol. 27; no. 5; pp. 573 - 585
• Main Authors: Englund, Liselotte, Arnberg, Filip K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01-01-2018
• Subjects: Accident investigations; Communication; Container ports; Content analysis; Disaster management; Disaster survivors; Disasters; Emergency preparedness; Exposure; Ferries; Interviews; Journalism; Journalists; Media; Media and Communication Studies; Media coverage; Media effects; Media ethics; Media management; Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap; Perceptions; Press conferences; Psychology; Psykologi; Qualitative analysis; Qualitative content analysis; Reporters; Stress; Trauma journalism; Sweden; Baltic Sea; Finland
• ISSN: 0965-3562; 1758-6100; 1758-6100
• DOI: 10.1108/DPM-02-2018-0056

Purpose
The media is an important part of disaster management, yet little is understood about their interplay with the disaster survivors. The purpose of this paper is to examine disaster survivors’ long-term retrospective views of their experiences with journalists and the media coverage.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 22 Swedish adult survivors (of 49 eligible) from a ferry disaster in the Baltic Sea, in which only 137 of the 989 people onboard survived, were interviewed after 15 years about their experiences of meeting journalists in the immediate aftermath and the media coverage in a long-term perspective. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
Findings
Survivors from the Estonia ferry disaster described a wide array of experiences from their contacts with the disaster journalists and being exposed in the media. From their experiences, four categories were extracted. The categories were common for both their media contacts and their media exposure: strain, support, rationality and evasion. The survivors’ experiences were both negative and positive.
Research limitations/implications
These accounts of disaster survivors’ experiences from an event 15 years ago provide an interesting comparison for future studies of contemporary disasters.
Originality/value
This study provides important perspectives on the role of disaster coverage in the media and documents how disaster survivors retrospect on the media as both a burden and a resource.