ABSTRACT
Disasters offer the social science researcher a fine opportunity to study the nature of the social and cultural construction of reality. As Barth has astutely reminded people, the study of the construction of reality should always be directed at “the here and now.” The news media play an important role in informing the public, policy makers, politicians, and emergency management officials about any disasters, but especially about technological disasters. Technological disasters, which do not seem to arise from nature, but rather from human error or carelessness, particularly perplex people and leave them to struggle for explanation or meaning. Victims often turn to the media to answer these needs. As the ferocious winds blew oil vapors and droplets clear across the island, the houses and land of nearby communities became coated with a brown gooey slime. The assessment of public health was impaired by the lack of necessary equipment for monitoring and measuring pollution levels.
