ABSTRACT
Both media and disaster scholars have studied the ways that media socially constructs a paradigm of order–disorder and us–them in coverage of disasters. These narratives of chaos, crisis, and danger are the core drivers of the disaster industrial complex as they herald securitization, militarization, policies of displacement, economic development, and scientific and technical interventions. Several discursive frames emerging from the Haiti earthquake reflect the dyad of chaos and order. First is the “danger and security” narrative, which points to the dangerous conditions in post-earthquake Haiti, centered mostly around Haitian survivors who were perceived as violent, and that ultimately necessitate narratives (and practices) of securitization and militarization. Second is the discourse of “unclean and clean,” a storyline about water, sanitation, and hygiene that necessitates extensive interventions on the parts of non-governmental organizations. The remaining narratives focus on the realities of displacement in the lives of survivors, primarily those of internally displaced people and unaccompanied children.
