Local And National Media Coverage Of Disaster: A Content Analysis Of The Print Media's Treatment Of Disaster Myths

For over two decades students of disaster phenomena have attempted to accurately describe and explain the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations during the pre-impact, trans-impact and post-impact periods. As part of this effort, considerable attention has been paid to cataloguing “disaster myths.” Fritz (1961) was one of the first researchers to discuss that many popular beliefs about disaster behavior are incorrect. For example, the widely accepted beliefs in large-scale panic, looting and criminal activity, public shelter utilization, disaster shock and general anti-social behavior have been shown to be inaccurate. Later Barton (1970), Dynes (1970) and Quarantelli and Dynes (1972) further highlighted these mythical elements. Wenger et.al. (1975) was able to empirically demonstrate that indeed the public does hold to these mistaken notions. Not only do residents of non-disaster locales subscribe to these myths, but later research found that residents of three communities with extensive disaster experience also possessed inaccurate information about these types of disaster behavior (Wenger et.al., 1984)