Obviously, relying on social media would not be enough to communicate to the public such a particularly important official communication related to disaster risk reduction and management. It is also unclear how media, particularly local radio stations and TV networks, were utilized. The source of ABS-CBN’s strength is its army of local radio and TV stations affiliated with it, and that it has regional newscasts that aired local news. The actual impact of ABS-CBN’s absence in the air on the extent and quality of disaster communication, particularly in the case of Typhoon Ulysses, in the end, is really an empirical question. A corollary research question is how much of disaster communication was dependent on each of these networks.

Source: Manila Times November 20, 2020 16:30 UTC