Newsrooms can never be too prepared to cover a disaster. Whether it be an earthquake, hurricane, wildfire or toxic chemical spill, newsrooms need to have a plan in place not only for coverage, but how to help staff cope with the stress of covering such events.
You can find many of these resources on the Journalist’s Toolbox weather, public safety, environment, mass shootings, mass shootings and wildfire pages. Our mental health section also has materials for coping with stress and where to get help.
When developing your coverage plan, pull resources and staffing from all parts of the newsroom. Think through the process and develop some basic guidelines so staff won’t be caught flat-footed. Here are a few tips pulled from a variety of sources, including the Dart Center, FEMA, HealthJournalism.org and the NOAA.
Get organized: Have a pre-built disaster Twitter list of staff accounts, local weather service, FEMA, local fire and rescue, etc. so the info flows into one feed. Share that feed with readers.
New staff: Make sure new staff from outside your coverage area know and understand disaster coverage in your area. Would a New Yorker moving to Oklahoma understand tornado alley?
Organize some of your coverage on the fly but have a roadmap: Main story, blog or running updates, social scanning (eyewitness reports from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), gather photos (staff, crowdsourcing)
Think of maps: flood zone, fire zone, areas impacted by weather, pinpoint where the plane crash was. What maps could you develop in advance of the disaster — safety shelters, etc. — to lighten the load when the story breaks? Go so far as to ask local authorities for shapefiles (.KML format preferred) of disaster zones (fire, flood, etc.) This usually takes a few days to access.
Staff your social channels with veteran staffers: Be careful what you share and retweet, especially closures, safety information, etc.
The news cycle is 24/7. Your staff is not: They need rest, time to check on loved ones or may need time if impacted by the disaster.
Aftermath: Watch government grant money for recovery: is the money going where it’s intended? Prepare for anniversary stories and long-term issues. Check back in with sources and those impacted by the disasters. Are they OK? Even if it’s not a story, it’s good to check.
It’s impossible to prepare for every aspect of covering a disaster — natural or manmade — but these guidelines will give you a start.
Toolbox Tool of the Month Tutorials
You can read articles on how to use tools featured on our site by reading them in Quill magazine online. They feature exercises, step-by-step instructions, video tutorials and much more. We post a new article in the second week of each month.
Around the Web
A few gems out there on the web:
Craig Silverman’s Verification and Digital Investigations Resources
Essential plugins and tools for general OSINT/online research work.TWDown.net: Twitter Video Downloader
Be careful here with video rights before downloading.How to Write SEO Headlines Both Readers and Google Search Will Love
Great tips from the NPR training site.
In Quotes …
“You can cage the singer but not the song.”
--Harry Belafonte
Follow us: @journtoolbox | JournalistsToolbox | Subscribe on YouTube
Copyright 2021 | Society of Professional Journalists
Create your profile
Only paid subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.
Click the link we sent to , or click here to log in.