Can a Newsroom Be Part of the Early Warning System?

"Media has an absolutely critical role in this whole process. This is not just a technical problem which scientists do. This is something which has to be conveyed to the general public in an easily understandable, usable, actionable way — and that is something that media does much better than any scientist could do." — Kamal Kishore, then Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2025 When the floodwaters rise, journalists are usually among the first to arrive. They photograph submerged roads, interview displaced families, document destroyed homes and report on the scale of the damage. Television crews go live from affected communities. Radio presenters bring officials and survivors onto air. Digital platforms fill with images and updates. This journalism matters. But there is a question the disaster-risk community needs to ask: Why should the media's most important role begin only after the disaster has already happened? What if journalists were treated not only as chroniclers of disaster, but as active partners in the systems designed to prevent or reduce its impacts? What if a newsroom began reporting when the forecast indicated increasing risk, when a trigger was approaching, or when a threshold for anticipatory action had been reached? That would represent a fundamental shift — from disaster journalism to risk journalism. The disaster story often starts too late The traditional disaster story is largely retrospective. A flood occurs. The journalist reports it. A drought destroys crops. The journalist investigates. A heatwave causes disruption. The journalist interviews affected people. A storm damages infrastructure. The cameras arrive. By then, however, many of the most important decisions have already been made — or the opportunity to make them has been lost. The purpose of early warning systems is precisely to change this sequence. The United Nations defines an early warning system as an integrated process involving risk knowledge, monitoring and forecasting, communication of authoritative and actionable warnings, and preparedness to respond. Its purpose is to enable people, communities, governments and businesses to take timely action before hazardous events cause harm. This means the media should be present much earlier in the chain. From "what happened?" to "what could happen?" Disaster journalism traditionally asks what happened? How many people were affected? How many houses were destroyed? What roads were damaged? How much assistance is required? Risk journalism asks a different set of questions. What could happen? Who is exposed? Why are they vulnerable? What does the forecast tell us? Has a trigger been reached? What threshold would activate action? What are authorities doing? What should communities know before the event? This is not about abandoning disaster reporting. It is about expanding journalism so that reporting continues before, during and after a disaster. UNDRR has similarly called for media coverage to extend beyond individual disaster events and contribute to an ongoing public dialogue about risk, preparedness and resilience. As UNESCO puts it, in calm times the media's job is to "raise public awareness of threats and shed light on risks, while holding the powerful to account" — and when disasters strike, media become "instrumental to early warning dissemination and fostering public engagement in response and recovery." "Every person on Earth" needs more than a warning The ambition behind Early Warnings for All is enormous: ensuring that every person on Earth is protected by an early-warning system. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly placed early warnings at the centre of global climate adaptation efforts. At the launch of the Early Warnings for All Executive Action Plan, he said the goal was to ensure that "every person on Earth is protected by early