Abstract

Disaster crisis communication is essential for providing adequate and successful disaster management process during disaster events. This article analyses the disaster communication in Thailand during the 2011 floods. The newspapers and government agencies found it difficult to provide timely and accessible flood information to the public. The methodology involves qualitative analysis of the data collected by questionnaire survey, key informant interviews and print news headlines from three leading newspapers in Thailand. The article involves adoption of structuration theory for analyzing the severe implication and inadequate crisis communication in Thailand during 2011 floods. The findings include the gaps in the disaster communication systems at the government level towards the local community. There is a need to provide user friendly disaster communication system to assist in resilient communities. All channels of communication including television and media, smartphones, open source data and social media must be incorporated in a comprehensive disaster communication system.