Disaster Coverage Model (DCM): Six Dimensions to Confront Activities and Workflows for Journalists and News Departments

Abstract

This work aims to identify, classify, and categorize relevant activities regarding professional journalistic work in major disaster coverage, and develop a conceptual model that organizes them theoretically. We conducted a series of empirical data collection stages (background gathering through in-depth interviews and content analysis) and later applied the theory-building block approach that uses concepts to create and operationalize constructs. The main result is a six-dimension model based on the traditional questions of the journalistic process: How, why, who, when, what, and where. It comprehensively addresses the multiple aspects involved in disaster coverage: emotional, logistic, professional, and ethical challenges, as well as timing, key actors/roles, and their needs and demands according to the disaster type and stage they face. The model also brings together a group of potential activities journalists must confront and carry out when covering major disasters or highly significant social crises. Its main contribution is to make a useful theoretical tool available to academia and the media, striving for a versatile matrix management approach.