News reports in crisis situations can be a powerful way to disseminate information during difficult times. But they’re not without risk for the people who produce them. That’s why training is so important. Crisis reporters need to understand how to handle delicate materials, protect themselves in dangerous situations, and maintain high ethical standards.
Disruptive factors and their related journalism have the potential to change crisis reporting, challenging its conventional templates. The aim of this article is to investigate these disruptive forces and examine their impact on TV’s crisis reporting.
As a specific case study, this article analyses the ways in which BBC and Channel 5 news programmes frame the UK energy crisis. In particular, this focuses on the extent to which crisis impact themes (i.e., escalating cost to households, businesses and the wider economy) are connected to related themes on solutions and support/advice.
The analysis of the gathered evening news broadcasts finds that both channels incorporate these themes in different ways. While a number of these differ, they all communicate the prevailing ideas of an uncertain energy crisis. These are characterised by notions of a prolonged struggle and a lack of clear solutions, as opposed to the other expected understandings and responses that are found in mediated singular crisis events.
Moreover, the portrayal of successful rescue and recovery actions as ‘miracles’ is not uncommon. This contributes to a broader trend of mythologising forms of crisis, which is highlighted by Durham (2008) in his analysis of US political violence coverage and Blondheim and Liebes (2002) in their examination of media representation of ecological crises.