A Sociocultural Approach to The News-making of a Major Natural Disaster: Exploring on TV News Works of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Chang, Chun-Yen
Abstract
This thesis aims to explore the social and cultural implicaitons of news production in face of major natural disasters in Taiwan. Through analyzing the professional views and role identities shared by news workers and how they produce news and commit to journalism under such cultural background, this research attempts to clarify the implications and practical effects of the culture of disaster news production. In terms of methodology, depth interviews with 29 TV news workers are conducted to learn their work experience and occupation interpretation, and corresponding data analysis is made to provide statistical support. There are two main research questions in this study, which are analyzed and answered in Chapter Four and Chapter Five respectively. In Chapter Four, based on the analysis of the public understanding of social structure and television news as well as the practical experience of TV news workers, the research diachronically reviews how television journalism is connected to the specific social-cultural contexts. Correspondingly, two research findings are concluded here. First, during the conventional course of news production, relevant norms guided and transformed by the power of structure are either accepted or resisted by journalists. As a result, the conventional news production culture turns into some cultural practice following the structural logic. Second, the development of Taiwan’s news production culture is mainly dominated by economic powers, which leads to a general lack of objective professionalism in the cultural practice of Taiwan’s news production. To answer the second research question, this research discusses in Chapter Five the professional views of television journalists, relevant production situations, as well as their reflection experience and concrete actions in face of disaster risks. It is found that journalists in the process of disaster news production generally face high degree of uncertainty as well as poor working conditions. Disaster situations require that journalists must have the abilities to adapt themselves to the changing circumstances and flexibly construct various cultural scripts according to the practical conditions. It is important to note that there are eight types of cultural scripts in disaster news production according to professional identities (social responsibility or business interests) and reflection actions (pursuit of public trust or self-interest). However, in the case of Typhoon Morakot, cultural scripts of “pursuing objective and balanced reporting” and “complying to disaster management” are not practiced. It is concluded in the last chapter that a research from the cultural perspective is helpful for researchers to explore how news workers begin learning from practicing after they enter the TV news field and learn to complete their duties in work field. During the non-disaster period, news production culture enables news workers to practice their jobs under routine division of news production in the symbol system of consensus and sharing, so as to eventually represent a “practical” journalism performance that responds to occupational community expectations. Strangely, however, such “practical” performance is deviated from the imagination and expectation of the society for journalism. With regard to cultural scripts of news production in the serious case of 8.8 windstorm disaster, due to the lack of cultural scripts “pursuing objective and balanced report” and “complying to disaster management”, the cultural practice of disaster news production failed to satisfy the expectation and demand of disaster news from the society and disaster management units, thus causing discontent and criticism from all walks of life on Taiwan’s disaster news. Such a finding also partly explains why Taiwan’s television journalism has been constantly subject to social criticism in major events and gradually losing its professional status in recent years. Finally, the dissertation discusses the problems and conflicts hidden in the culture of Taiwan’s major disaster news production in accordance with disaster journalists’ work experience, and offers suggestions for the transformation of news production system that toward risk society.
Subjects
disaster communication
disaster journalism
risk and uncertainty
news making
Sociocultural Approach
SDGs
Type
thesis