How to talk to the media: televised coverage of public health issues in a disaster.

Public health officials often are critical of the way television news covers disasters, while broadcast journalists complain of a lack of cooperation from the public health sector during disaster coverage. This article summarizes the issues discussed in a session on Televised Coverage of Disasters, presented in April 1999 at the UCLA Conference on Public Health and Disasters in Los Angeles. Public health officials were asked to "talk back to their television sets" in a dialog with television journalists. Concerns included: 1) the lack of balance in television coverage that is dominated by sensational images that may frighten rather than inform the public; 2) the potential for psychological damage to viewers when frightening images are shown repeatedly in the days and weeks of the disaster; and 3) the perception that TV reporters place too much emphasis on crime, property damage, and loss of life, giving relatively low priority to disaster preparedness and to public health issues in the aftermath of a disaster. Options for improving communication between television journalists and public health professionals also are discussed.