Introduction
Natural hazards become disasters only when they intersect human social and economic aspects (Quarantelli, 1998). Indeed the effects are exacerbated when the hazard exposes the social vulnerability of an affected community and its inability to recover without assistance (Etkin and Dore, 2003). When disasters occur, the resultant impacts are not solely limited to the geographical boundaries of the event. Today it is common for media reports and graphic images to radiate into communities and households across the globe (Bankoff, 2001). Since the 1960s, global exposure to hazards has escalated because of this enhanced media coverage and because the average number of natural disasters reported worldwide has almost doubled every decade (Pelling, 2003). Media reporting now provides an almost live experience of natural disasters that may be occurring on the other side of the world, a situation in which such a broad audience would have little or no chance of actually experiencing...
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Biernacki, W. (2013). Mass Media and Natural Disasters. In: Bobrowsky, P.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_228
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