TITLE? Introduction?
Every year, significant reports of death tolls and destruction caused by disasters, mostly brought by typhoons, are inscribed in the Philippine fact book. One of the reasons why reports on disasters are on the rise is due to the country’s geographical location in the Pacific seismic belt that makes it prone to severe tropical storms and earthquakes. Other contributing factors are the vulnerability of citizens including lack of technical materials and extensive trainings of the agencies, which should institute proper mitigation and response to catastrophes. The demands for government leadership and sound policies before, during and after disasters are vital to the preservation of human life and resources. The need to …show more content…
According to the Citizen’s Disaster Response Center (CDRC 2012), the Philippines tops the list of countries affected by disaster incidents with large numbers of mortality and victims. “In 2012, 12 million Filipinos were affected by natural disasters, second only to China with 43 million” (page?). . On November 8, 2013, the Philippines again hit the world’s history for being the first to experience the strongest tropical cyclone called Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) that ravaged the Visayas Region affecting “more than 3.4 million families or 16 million people spread across different regions and economic losses pegged at almost 89.6 billion pesos” based on the NDRRMC update as of April 17, 2015 (COA, 2014, p. 17). Typhoon Yolanda and other typhoons such as Sendong, Ondoy, Pablo, Seniang, among others, have brought tremendous adverse impact on the country’s social, economic and political standings. In the case of Yolanda, its magnitude and path had been announced before landfall by the weather bureau and official warnings were relayed through the broadcast media. Even President Aquino announced on national television …show more content…
The media, on the other hand, are the journalists and staff covering the disasters. Erving Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical framework in his book “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” applies as he considers the imagery of theatre to see the portrayal of humans in social interaction. He “uses a theatrical metaphor to explain how communicators present the self” (Littlejohn and Foss, 2011, p.101). The elements such as “stage, appearance, performance, and manner” (Goffman, 1959) are taken into consideration to gain the appreciation of their audience. This can also be applied to a bigger event concerning society. As Goffman (1959) puts it, “All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn’t are not easy to specify” (p.72). Accordingly, the dramaturgical components could also be associated with the various roles that the actors portray and how effectively they enact to elicit positive response from the audience. The “stage” is where the audience view the performers. The news stories are considered as the “stage” in which spectators see the vantage point of the actors’ portrayal. The “appearance” has to do with their character and identity that they carry and present to the public. The “performance” is the duties and responsibilities that both the government and media embrace in relation to the roles