Playing politics in the development and provision of disaster information for Hispanics

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Last Modified
  • March 21, 2019
Creator
  • Liu, Brooke Fisher
    • Affiliation: Hussman School of Journalism and Media
Abstract
  • This study examines how states and counties communicate disaster information to Hispanics. Through 13 interviews with state emergency management communicators and a national survey of 435 county emergency management directors, the study benchmarks how many channels states and counties employ to communicate Spanish-language disaster information. The study addresses who state emergency management communicators and county emergency management directors believe should be responsible for developing and providing Spanish-language disaster information. Also, the study explores county emergency management directors' perceptions of how capable various nongovernmental and governmental groups are of producing Spanish-language disaster information. Finally, the study explores whether principal-agent theory helps explain the variety of channels states and counties employ to communicate Spanish-language disaster information. The interviews revealed that most of the state emergency management communicators do not provide Spanish-language disaster information. Communicators that do provide Spanish-language disaster information do so mostly through working with groups (e.g., Catholic Church, American Red Cross, and local government officials) to develop this information. The interviews also revealed that communicators think counties primarily are responsible for developing and providing Spanish-language disaster information. iv The survey found that most of the counties communicate Spanish-language disaster information through at least one channel, but counties communicate English-language disaster information through three times more channels. Also, contrary to what state communicators believe, county emergency management directors believe the federal emergency management agency (FEMA) and states primarily are responsible for developing and providing Spanish-language disaster information. County directors also believe FEMA and the states are most capable of developing Spanish-language disaster information. These findings provide evidence that goal conflict (one of the key constructs of principal-agent theory) exists between the states and counties. Also, the survey found that one of the most important factors that affects the variety of channels county emergency management directors employ to communicate Spanish-language disaster information is how often the directors work with groups such as FEMA, state emergency management agencies, and nongovernmental groups. Like state communicators, county directors work with a diverse set of groups. Thus, no single group emerges as a leader in producing and providing Spanish-language disaster information. Also, there is no clear channel through which states and counties communicate about how best to produce and provide Spanish-language disaster information, providing evidence of information asymmetry (the other key construct of principal-agent theory).
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  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Curtin, Patricia A.
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • October 19, 2010

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