STATES OF EMERGENCY - Patrick Lagadec

260 Landmarks for action. Questions about managementspectators? Of course the medias can't be driven to change too quickly: theyalso have to satisfy the expectations of their audiences, who want to knoweverything, provided you keep it simple.- In a crisis situation, communication responds to a logic that is hardlyconducive to reducing the general excitation. A punchy message, forexample, quickly saturates the public's capacity to receive anything else. Andas different crises have shown, once information has been released, itbecomes almost impossible to correct. In fact, corrections may only makethings worse. What, then, are the consequences of errors which are difficultto avoid in a hard-to-grasp situation?- In fact, error awaits the media at every turn of the road: officials haveno comment, experts can't yet make an official pronouncement, and mostjournalists have only laymen's knowledge. But can they be expected to saynothing? The public expects news. In a media civilization, an absence ofinformation signifies that the worst is at hand. Besides, even if one journalistremains silent, others will publish information (unless there is a newsblackout, accepted by all the media, but this can only last a short time).- The press also raises all sorts of other problems. By saturating citizenswith information, it keeps their minds in a state of high tension. By a varietyof details, it demonstrates that the systems are scarcely under control. Itexacerbates opposition among individuals and agencies, since finding thecontradiction is the key to any news investigation. Just when those in chargehave done everything to show that there are well-organized systems that standup under crisis, the press pours out lists of doubts, contradictions, frighteningimages, unacceptable proposals, and quotations that hardly flatter theirauthors. It reopens debates that had been painstakingly brought to resolution.- The press may pour oil on the flames of the crisis, provoking explosiveaffects: in the Seveso drums case, for instance, several newspapers announcedthe drums were radioactive. The press stages images for their impact andknows how to use the full weight of words. In the same case, a leading largeformatglossy magazine chose to frame its April 21, 1983 article in a hairraisingdecor replete with images of the Second World War, Vietnam,Afghanistan, chemical warfare, pulsing anguish, rising fear, ghost cities, andso forth. More recently, when a large-scale evacuation of the population of anagglomeration was performed in western France following a fire in achemical products warehouse on October 29, 1987, a paper in France'spopular press featured a full-page banner headline the next day, stating"Scenes of looting in Nantes after exodus". On page two, an equallysuggestive follow-up was, "After the looting, armed soldiers patrol streets."While calm reigned in the city of Nantes, a confused image was born in theminds of readers stopping over these headlines: was this Beirut? Ontelevision, the most effective language comes from theater, such as the imageof the president of Greenpeace clapping handcuffs on the Italian senator Noèduring the Seveso drums business (10).- The press also thrusts "stars" onto center stage, who may whip up themedia froth even further. Of course a star can offer useful support in