Income Inequality and Disaster Relief

Access to Message and Media

Disaster situations require well-organized, highly specific messages. Audiences depend upon messages disseminated through local television and radio news media, as these channels are perceived as most valuable and faster during times of crisis. To be effective, these messages must be tailored specifically to the target audience with attention to the adequacy of information, level of fear arousal, motivation to respond, and actionable steps to avoid negative consequences. Potential effectiveness is only realized when a disaster message is actually received by the intended audience, and subsequently perceived as adequate and informative.

Communication with the populations that need information the most, those severely and directly affected by the disaster, poses unique challenges in relief efforts. Audience information-seeking behaviors and processing abilities affect the timely, effective reception of disaster relief messages, and are complicated by a knowledge gap that is evident between populations of differing socioeconomic status. Low and underclass populations have inadequate exposure to vital information, as well as other mediating factors such as personal interest, motivation to seek information, and level of concern. Further, individuals of higher socioeconomic status have been found to have more background knowledge, comprehension ability, and access to crisis messages pertaining to public health.

In addition to difficulties in audience message processing, information dissemination proves to serve as another hurdle for disaster relief efforts. Information is not equally distributed to affected populations. Five mediating factors, directly related to socioeconomic status, have been attributed to this discrepancy: audience communication skills and reading ability, frequency and quality of relevant social contact, selective exposure to information, pre-existing knowledge, the level of detail provided, and sophistication of the media. Populations of high socioeconomic status and education are more interested in mediated messages and are connected to the proper channels to receive necessary information; low-income populations tend to be socially isolated, lacking resources for information and survival necessities. Lack of access breeds distrust of mainstream media to provide credible risk and crisis warning messages. Consequently, members of these affected populations hesitate to act, and delayed responses often have devastating consequences.

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