Why not all disasters are equal | Roger Yates

People don't have 'donor fatigue', but they are influenced by a media reliance on visually arresting images of disasters

It has been a busy year for disasters: from the Haitian earthquake to Chinese landslides, food insecurity in Niger to the current floods in Pakistan, it has seemed like a constant barrage. As a disaster risk management specialist, I help communities to minimise the harm caused by disasters before, during, and after they happen.

In my experience, when people understand the human suffering caused by disasters they give their time and money generously. The media is the first place they get this information from, so it is essential that media coverage be balanced and informative from the start. The reasons why certain disasters get more media attention than others are a great source of conversation and debate within our sector – what makes a disaster newsworthy? Why do some catastrophes grab media attention while others are left behind?

Sheer death toll is an obvious benchmark for the amount of attention a disaster receives. Without high death tolls there is less media attention, meaning an emergency can reach an extreme stage before it hits the news. The current floods in Pakistan are an argument against this idea, but due to the extraordinary scale of the floods as well as the fact that Pakistan is a significant country in any news agenda, the floods are getting good coverage and, therefore, more donations. Regional relations, common language and colonial ties also help to determine what scale of press attention disasters receive. But somehow, some emergencies still fall into the "hidden crisis" category.

This can be said of the food crisis in Niger and subsequent floods. The food crisis has been going on since at least May but it was not until the media was actively lobbied by NGOs that they took notice. The type of disaster it is bears heavily on how it is perceived – slow-evolving disasters like flooding and food crises are not as "shocking" as other emergencies. Niger does not have a full-blown famine, and the death toll is low, but a combination of seasonal, political, and cultural factors mean that this is a problem that the country will take a long time to recover from. There is no singular reason for this crisis, making it difficult for the media to report on and therefore difficult for the public to know what is going on and engage with it.

Being able to identify with the conditions is integral to our understanding of the gravity of the situation. This can be seen in the reaction to the Haitian earthquake. What was happening to people was simple to understand and empathise with – the idea of buildings crashing down on us is terrifying and graphic. The survivors of the Haitian earthquake have global sympathy for having lived through such sudden and terrible events, but this is not the case for everyone who lives through a natural disaster.

I do not believe in donor fatigue. People have thankfully shown us time and time again that they care, and want to do their part to help. What I would say is that the coverage of disasters is too simplistic. With disasters less visual and arresting than the Haitian earthquake, I don't think the media take them seriously until aid agencies push for the story to be told. Once they have noticed there is often a herd mentality – news agencies and outlets rush to make sure they are not being outdone by their rivals, that they too have the "news of the moment".

This needs to change. Journalism on disasters needs to be more nuanced, objective and explore the story around the catastrophe. I hope that journalists and indeed the people who read their work consider the complexities behind the headlines, and ask about the things that didn't happen. Why did the Niger food crisis not become a full-blown famine? Can other nations with food security problems learn from this? Why was Haiti so unprepared for the earthquake – what strategies are being used to make the country safer as they rebuild?

In order to lessen the pain caused by disasters we must try to learn from the ones gone by, and in order to do this we must find a new way; a new narrative to help people understand what is going on in the world around them.