Despite being a relatively rare event, crises present a unique opportunity for news organisations to challenge assumptions and test the limits of their journalism. As such, they are a key point of contact between authorities and the public – with authorities wanting to convey directives, reassure citizens, and mitigate panic, while the media need a means to verify information, navigate censorship, avoid sensationalism and meet tight deadlines.
Existing crisis journalism research suggests that journalists tend to report crises using templates that reproduce expected myths and authority skewing, and that news audiences are positioned as observers of abstracted crisis events. The analysis of the UK energy crisis in TV journalism, however, challenges these findings by showing that crisis reporting can also be dynamic and elicit different responses from audiences.
Specifically, in the UK, the analysis of crisis coverage shows that the unfolding nature of this particular crisis allows victims to express experiential reactions to the emergence and impacts of the crisis which they can then amplify as a form of social rationality (Blondheim & Liebes 2002). Additionally, despite a general lack of relevant included expertise on the origins of the crisis, there are frequent discussions about the need for and evidence of, support during the crisis.
In addition, the observed discussion about impacts orients reporting away from any potential mythologising of crisis impact stories and creates space for more informed discussions about what is being done to address these impacts. This is a space that is populated by the voices of ordinary people and business owners as well as charities.
