Interpreting Cyclone Disasters in Bangladesh and Myanmar from Web-Based Newspaper Discourse: Media Framing of Cyclone Vulnerability on the Bay of Bengal Coast

Abstract

Based on discourse analysis of 226 Web-based newspaper reports on three major cyclones in the Bay of Bengal—Gorky (1991), Sidr (2007), and Nargis (2008)—this study assesses a number of research assumptions dealing with media framing of cyclone vulnerability on the Bay of Bengal coast. Using a social constructionist perspective, the content of each report is classified into several segments, each providing data on how the selected newspapers framed certain aspects of the disaster news. Frequency counts of these themes provide specific data for assessing several research paradigms. Newspaper discourse was replete with references to a set of socio-economic variables as elements of risk, such as an impoverished population, marginal locations in low-lying topographic settings, poor-quality housing, and a risk-prone subsistence economy, as the context for cyclone vulnerability on the Bay of Bengal coast. Data obtained from discourse analysis also provide evidence of cyclone victims' vulnerability due to logisti...