How the media struggled in Nepal's earthquake rescue

The media in Nepal has been instrumental in keeping people connected and updated about the recent magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit the country on Saturday April 25. However, initially the quake did not create a major reaction, as small scale tremors are not uncommon in the country. The Nepalese people were also unclear about the extent of the disaster as local media struggled to react to the earthquake. The reality of the scale of the disaster began to sink in when heartbreaking pictures of the damage started emerging. Live footage and pictures from the international media gave some insight into the extent of the devastation in the earthquake ravaged nation. The time taken by the Nepalese media to respond is not surprising. Our research has found that Nepalese media outlets categorise disasters as current affairs, without a specific accountability for disaster reporting. On this occasion, the lack of reporting by Nepalese media early on was added to by the damage the earthquake had caused to media infrastructure itself.