Nat Hazards (2013) 69:3957

DOI 10.1007/s11069-013-0684-0
ORIGINAL PAPER

The emergence of star disaster-affected areas

and its implications to disaster and communication
interdisciplinary study: a Taiwan example
from 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 created
by 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 disasteraffected 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 and
communication 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 China
e-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 overreporting 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 generated 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 disasteraffected 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

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41

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 consequences 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

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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
Fig. 1 The separate models for
communication research and
disaster research on media and
disaster management

?
Media
?

Media hype

Disaster
management
Consequence

(a) Communication

(b) Disaster

The failures of Disaster

management

Community-based
program

Benefits to Disaster
Management

(c) Disaster

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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 interaction 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 communication 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

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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 communication), 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 format), and technology (channels, accessibility, usability, presentation, and et al.) of disaster
information but to establishing different types of hardware and systems without considering the issues which communication research deals with. There are so much that communication 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 interdisciplinary 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 staraffected 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 newspapers 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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45

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 Morakot. 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 consequences. 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

Death toll

Chiayi

Kaohsiung

Pingtung

Taitung

Nantou

Total

19
3%

511
85 %

45
8%

7
1%

16
3%

598
100 %

Top 10 Rainfalls

1, 3, 6, 9

4, 5, 7, 8, 10

Numbers in top 81

16
20 %

20
25 %

13
16 %

3
4%

12
15 %

United Daily News

173
17 %

380
37 %

211
20 %

180
17 %

88
9%

1032
100 %

The Liberty Times

107
13 %

317
39 %

145
18 %

203
25 %

49
6%

821
100 %

China Times

74
17 %

177
40 %

116
26 %

56
13 %

24
5%

447
100 %

Apple Daily

36
16 %

103
47 %

38
17 %

36
16 %

8
4%

221
100 %

Total

390
15 %

977
39 %

510
20 %

475
19 %

169
7%

2521
100 %

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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 coverage

of five counties in the first 7 days

123

Apple Daily

Kaohsiung

Pingtung

Chiayi

Nantou

Taitung

2009/8/8

2009/8/9

1
6

2009/8/10

12

12

2009/8/11

2009/8/12

13

2009/8/13

15

2009/8/14

Total: 133

56

30

21

20

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Table 3 The Liberty Times
coverage of five counties in the
first 7 days

Table 4 China Times coverage

of five counties in the first 7 days

Table 5 United Daily News

coverage of five counties in the
first 7 days

47

The Liberty
Times

Kaohsiung

Pingtung

Chiayi

Nantou

Taitung

2009/8/8

10

18

12

2009/8/9

18

20

13

14

2009/8/10

25

12

12

11

2009/8/11

23

26

2009/8/12

27

15

2009/8/13

33

2009/8/14

22

10

17

Total: 420

158

73

55

31

103

Nantou

Taitung

China Times

Kaohsiung

Pingtung

Chiayi

2009/8/8

2009/8/9

2009/8/10

11

2009/8/11

22

16

10

2009/8/12

10

2009/8/13

19

2009/8/14

17

Total: 224

81

62

37

10

34

Nantou

Taitung

United Daily
News

Kaohsiung

Pingtung

Chiayi

2009/8/8

12

2009/8/9

14

21

10

2009/8/10

33

29

10

13

2009/8/11

44

18

17

15

2009/8/12

31

15

15

14

2009/8/13

13

16

11

2009/8/14

14

13

Total: 459

161

112

78

40

68

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
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 wellknown 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 newspapers
coverage on Taitung in the first
7 days

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Luye

Dawu

Beinan including
Chipen

Jinfeng including
Chialan

United Daily
News

12

25

41

The Liberty
Times

14

22

44
16

China Times

Apple Daily

Total

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, Taimali, 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 pseudoevent and writing public relations news to journalists. For example: self-help organizations 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 nongovernment 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 as
a 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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51

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 newsrooms 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 reaction. (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 consequences 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 distributions 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 community. We are orphans produced by media. (Resident E)
2

http://www.lovelytaiwan.org.tw/index.php?class=lw&func=about

http://www.kaaluwan88.tw/

http://www.peopo.org/kaaluwan

http://www.peopo.org/

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53

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 community 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 accomplishments and rushed the process of recovery.
We preferred the location of our temporary housing in Chengshin Village as permanent 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 suspected 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.

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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. Ironically, 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

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Visual
impacts

55

Newsroom
routines

(b)
The failures of
Disaster management

(c)

Resident/Self-help
organization

Benefits to Disaster
Management

Non-star areas

Communication and disaster interdisciplinary study

Star affected areas

(a)

Disaster
scenarios

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

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 organization 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

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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, understandable, 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 author
would like to thank the reviewers and those who have helped this study all over the world.

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