Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
“Reveal the institutional organs that failed, the human mistakes behind the avoidable deaths. Talk to the ones who had no choice but to stay or leave. Write about the moral challenges faced during calamities.”
In 2021, the world will continue to unravel in pieces, in shards of catastrophes, as it struggles to cope with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The relentless sequence of fires, floods, and hurricanes will blend into a distant, monotonous hum for those of us not directly connected to the disasters, given the depletion of our surge capacities and the current patterns of breaking news coverage.