The Perfect Typhoon: Viewing Taiwan's Typhoon Morakot Through Journalistic Lenses

Abstract

Although scientific and technological progress continues to improve advanced warning technologies for meteorological and seismic events, natural disasters remain a threat globally. Asia is the continent most affected by natural disasters. Located in both the Circum-Pacific seismic belt and the western Pacific typhoon zone, Taiwan faces similar threats to its Asian neighbors. In 2009, the island nation experienced Typhoon Morakot and saw its massive rain-triggered landslides, burying more than 700 people in several rural villages and causing US$1.5 billion in economic losses. Furthermore, Typhoon Morakot was a political storm and a symbolic crisis because of the government's sluggish and inept response and the identity of the primary victims—Taiwanese Aborigines—who were forced to negotiate their racial identity and cultural heritage post-disaster. This dissertation examines the cultural and political role of disaster journalism. Employing a methodological triangulation of in-depth interviews with 23 veteran journalists who covered Typhoon Morakot and textual analysis of broadcast, newspaper, and online news coverage of Typhoon Morakot, this project investigates the process of disaster news-making, the visual construction of public emotions in broadcast news, the narrative attribution of political responsibility in newspapers, and the social justice potential of alternative media. News coverage of Typhoon Morakot thus provides both an outlet to witness the production and presentation of disaster news developed in a highly mature and competitive media environment and a glimpse into the international challenges and domestic predicaments faced by the newly democratized Taiwan.