1. Social control of media in a natural
disaster:
a critical view from professionals and
citizens
Magdalena Saldaña
The University of Texas at Austin
Lorenzo Parra
Universidad San Sebastián
(Concepción-Chile)
2. Context
• The Chilean earthquake on February 2010
rated a magnitude of 8.8 on a Richter scale
and affected the center and the south of
the country
3. • Alto Río Building, City of Concepción
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
4. • After the earthquake, a tsunami devastated the coasts of those regions,
causing losses close to 30 billion dollars and more than 600 people dead.
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
5. • The lack of information about the disaster and the erratic performance of
the authorities caused a social and economic crisis in the main cities
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
6. • The shortage of basic services, the interruption of telephone lines and
internet connection, and the impossibility of accessing banks, provoked
feelings of insecurity among people. Photo by El Sur Newspaper
7. • At first, the idea of a shortage of supplies drove people into the
pharmacies and supermarkets to steal first necessity products.
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
10. • Media showed people running away with food, alcohol or electrical
appliances, emphasizing more the criminal facts than the earthquake and
tsunami consequences. Photo by El Sur Newspaper
11. • In the specific case of Concepción, there was such social chaos that a
military intervention was required to restore order and normality.
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
12. • The city was declared under state of siege and an 18-hour curfew was
imposed
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
13. • Total prohibition of going out in times different from those legally stated
(from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m).
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
14. • These measures were received with people’s approval, due to their
feelings of terror and extreme alertness for the information on the media.
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
15. • Newspaper, and especially radio stations, constantly informed about lootings
and supposed hordes of people coming from the periphery to the city, stealing
and destroying everything in their path. Photo by El Sur Newspaper
16. • People were in a highly vulnerable situation; so, the idea of a group of
criminal people trying to get the city was quickly absorbed.
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
17. • People raised barricades on the street entrances and established night
vigilance, waiting for the supposed looting crowd. However, that crowd never
came, and the curfew gradually decreased until it ended by middle April.
Photo by El Sur Newspaper
18. Questions
• If the information showed by the mass media caused fear and therefore
influenced the approval of military intervention, what is the role played by
the media after the earthquake?
• How should information be presented in emergency periods or chaos
situations?
• What is the role which professional ethics and common sense play at the
time to evaluate the available information?
19. Goals
• The purpose of this research is to describe in which way the media exerted
social control over people, and to discover if the social conflicts generated
after the earthquake were influenced by that control.
20. Theoretical framework
• Foucault (1975) Discipline and Punish. He argues that the new mode of
punishment becomes the model for control of an entire society, with
factories, hospitals, and schools modeled on the modern prison:
“disciplinary” society.
• Deleuze (1992) Societes of control. Deleuze argues that our environment
has shifted from disciplinary societies to ‘societies of control’: individuals
and their moralities as products of the organization of control; individuals
are continuously and limitlessly controlled by systems of domination.
21. Method and measurement
• Exploratory, cross sectional approach, through qualitative methodology using
case study.
• The data collection procedure was conducted by individual and in group in-
depth interviews.
• To discover how the media exerted social control over people, six journalists
from local outlets which covered the earthquake news were interviewed.
• To understand how the media influenced the sensation of fear and chaos in
the city, two families were also interviewed.
• The data analysis is based on the constant comparative method according to
Taylor and Bogdan (1984) .
22. Findings
• Categories made by constant comparative method are presented below.
Four categories were found:
• Journalism as community service
• Media, watchdogs of social facts
• Mass media for social (dis) order
• Mass media legitimizing social control
23. Findings
• Journalism as community service
• “So, the responsibility of this profession is here. In these situations, you
realize how important is to be a journalist. If we brought the information to
people, we would produce calm, because people needed to find out what
was happening”. Radio journalist
• “For me, media was very relevant. My neighbor had those flashlights with
radio receptor, so we listened to and started to find out what was
happening… of course nobody said anything specific , but at least they
gave some information about the disaster… that information made us
calm”. Interviewee from Coronel
24. Findings
• Media, watchdogs of social facts
• “I took pictures of people looting and then we showed the photos to make
people confess. That was very effective, because people called to the radio
or the police saying ‘I know that person who is running away on the bicycle
or with something in a shopping cart, this is Mr. So – and –so…’ And when
the information systems worked, the police went to those people’s houses”.
Radio journalist
25. Findings
• Mass media for social (dis) order
• “I think lootings and fear occurred due to the idea of the hordes which
supposedly would loot houses. And that was the result of the terrible
performance of the radio”. Press journalist
• “I think the media contributed to the increase of lootings… for example,
they said “they are looting the supermarket in Prat Street” and there were
a few people… but when the radio informed that, five minutes later there
were 200 people looting the place”. Press journalist
26. Findings
• Mass media for social (dis) order
• “It was a way to keep people in their homes, taking care of the streets,
avoiding anyone walking out at night… it was a way to create order and
the media got that, the radio created the idea of the hordes, and one
believed it because we were in such a social chaos… but in fact, if you think
about it now, you realize it was a method to establish order… to produce
chaos was a way to establish order”. Interviewee from Coronel
27. Findings
• Mass media legitimizing social control
• “You know, I think it was society asking for a curfew, and I really don’t
know anybody who disagreed with the curfew… everyone felt safer with
the military on the streets. Now, if we talk about the time that curfew
lasted, I imagine it is related to social safety and so, I don’t understand it,
but they should have some criteria to decide it…” TV station journalist
28. Conclusions
• Mass media can get important power in times of natural disasters, since
they are a relevant information source for citizens as well as for
authorities. According to the findings, three factors make media social
control possible :
• The information itself: the media was the only information source about
the earthquake.
• The non-existence of authorities, which allowed the media to control
public and private sphere.
• Finally, the fear among people; the insecurity sensation they lived made
them to ask for help and military protection.
