The role of news media in natural disaster risk and recovery

This paper explores the news media's role in constructing public perceptions of risk associated with natural hazards. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005 provide a useful case study for exploring the social construction of risk that results from media coverage of natural disasters. The four capital types, natural, human, social, and built, will be used as a frame of reference from which to evaluate media texts. This paper shows that natural capital received relatively less attention in the media coverage of these recent disasters. We apply the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to argue that future perceptions of risk due to natural hazards will reflect the attention paid to each capital in media coverage.