https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/disaster-porn-storm-reporting-tantalizing-destructive/
By Rachel Kraus
When Hurricane Irma tussled the West coast of Florida instead of decimating the state entirely, those of us following closely, but from afar, unwittingly felt…disappointed. Nowhere was that anticlimax more evident than in the overblown and ubiquitous fixture of the fall: the live television special news storm report.
You know the sort: an anchor, pulled from behind his New York studio desk and clad in a windbreaker instead of a sport coat, emcees from a lightly-battered boardwalk in Florida or Texas while squinting against the drizzle. He repeats a series of the same obvious “updates” while looking slightly uncomfortable: “the wind is strong!” Or, delivered with a tone of bracing sobriety, “this is just the beginning of what is sure to be a long night.”
Then the anchor throws to a meteorologist back in the studio making circles with both hands, who then throws back to the beleaguered anchor, who excitedly throws to a reporter in the field, who proceeds to describe what he “just saw,” but now, with the expectant camera trained on him, is mostly just waiting around, alone in the rain.
There is a sense while watching this insipid loop that the newscasters are on tenterhooks for something to happen. And this pervasive feeling is indicative of the larger disservice that long-format, “special report” broadcasts of storms do to actual victims: they sensationalize disaster, and in doing so cause reporters and viewers alike to effectively wish for human suffering. And worse, to become let down when they cannot see it, which ultimately distracts from urgent problems and achievable solutions.
