Media Effects in a Crisis

This paper explores the media effects of a national crisis in India – the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). The site located in one of the industrial cities of northern India suffered a major tragedy when poisonous gas fumes escaped from its storage tanks onto an unsuspecting city. The gas fumes killed many people and damaged the reputation of UCC abroad. This paper uses the dependency model of media effects to discuss the immediate effects of the Bhopal gas tragedy – how the entire Indian subcontinent and parts of Asia were affected by this tragedy. The paper explores the media effects model and then explains the crisis communications functions of the media using empirical evidence.

Crisis: Meaning and features

Grabner (1989) defined crisis as “natural or manmade events that pose an immediate and serious threat to the lives and property or to the peace of mind of many” (1989: 305).

A crisis is usually sudden marked by unpredictability and uncertainty. It has the power to effect large populations. Usually crises are national in nature where, people come together and share one common experience. But, the national crisis can spill into international waters. People having similar cultural heritages and geographic proximity can also be effect ted by a national crisis (Dinham and Sarangi, 2000). The Bhopal Gas Tragedy is one such case. It occurred in 1984 and was immediately consumed by the media. The entire city of Bhopal came to a standstill as people and poultry became targets of poisonous gas. Soon, the crisis spread to the whole of India as the crisis took on humanitarian proportions. Subramanyam (1988, 2000) says that the Bhopal gas tragedy is a major national and international crisis as it effected millions of people worldwide – (a) it crippled the reputation and future of UCC in Asia and Europe (b) it brought the diverse people of India together – people and authorities rushed to the aid of suffering workers (c) the news of the tragedy spread rapidly and was on every media outlet for a month. As soon as the gas fumes claimed their first victims, television coverage zoomed in and relayed the events of Bhopal live to a tense nation.

Theoretical Framework

Mass media plays an important part in the development and existence of society. To do this, it has to perform some pertinent functions. Society has to be viewed as a complex system consisting of interrelated units or components. This is a structure and within that structure, each unit performs functions for the maintenance of the structure. Mass media is one such unit within the complex system of society. As such it performs some important functions to further the development of society as a whole. This entire schematic view forms the popular theoretical focus of “structural functionalism’ (Merton, 1968).