In the video “Meltdown At Three Mile Island” operators in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania contributed to a partial nuclear meltdown when they turned off the emergency water valve causing temperature to increase inside the plant. This error lead to a technological crisis that reached national concern where government officials and the president of the United States got involved. At first the residences highly relied on information that was provided by these officials. However, when the siren for an evacuation went off it triggered panic amongst communities. In this paper, I will first explain the elements that contributed to this disaster. Then, I will use the Collective Behavioral view of panic to explore the panic that lead to the mobilization.
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Mileti article titled Disaster by Design: Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States, “Technological hazards, especially those associated with new technologies or those that are imposed, are assumed by many people to be amenable to “fixes: that will substantially reduce risk”(1999:213). I believe this was how the residence saw the issue at first with the plant. Assuming that the experts would eventually fix the problem with the plant once they figure out what was wrong with it. This could explain why initially no one left the neighborhood at first even though, there was an apart fear amongst the collective. However, this fear was justified because it was difficult to know what was exactly occurring in the plant since phone lines were constantly busy and communication were starting to breakdown. This eventually caused everyone to be more susceptible to rumors which became an issue when the civil defense alarm went off initiating an evacuation. Here the rumor mill took into effect and people from outside of the state were calling in and telling their friends and family to evacuate. Government official also begin to question those in charge of the plant and their motives since they did not mention the problem beforehand. Even journalists were distressed because they did not know exactly what was occurring and were not getting any responses the they felt was reassuring enough from those in the charge of the …show more content…
For instance, shortly after the siren Jack Herbein held press conference to ease the panic that was set into motion. However, the journalists there became agitated and vicious demanding an explanation, but whatever response Jack Herbein provided was not sufficient. Some of the journalists who went to the press conference has seen “The China Syndrome” movie that portrayed a nuclear meltdown which was released in theaters twelve days before the disaster in three mile island. This can be another explanation as to why the journalists responded in anger during conference. That they already seen what could possibly occur from the movie resulted in anger due to fear. Despite the explaination the concept of hysteria can also be applied in this situation as well. Here the journalists do not have any knowledge of what was actually occurring in the plant. There only source of information they had was from the rumors and since their internal buffers had been broken down they were more susceptible to rumors causing fear in the mass due to
Mileti article titled Disaster by Design: Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States, “Technological hazards, especially those associated with new technologies or those that are imposed, are assumed by many people to be amenable to “fixes: that will substantially reduce risk”(1999:213). I believe this was how the residence saw the issue at first with the plant. Assuming that the experts would eventually fix the problem with the plant once they figure out what was wrong with it. This could explain why initially no one left the neighborhood at first even though, there was an apart fear amongst the collective. However, this fear was justified because it was difficult to know what was exactly occurring in the plant since phone lines were constantly busy and communication were starting to breakdown. This eventually caused everyone to be more susceptible to rumors which became an issue when the civil defense alarm went off initiating an evacuation. Here the rumor mill took into effect and people from outside of the state were calling in and telling their friends and family to evacuate. Government official also begin to question those in charge of the plant and their motives since they did not mention the problem beforehand. Even journalists were distressed because they did not know exactly what was occurring and were not getting any responses the they felt was reassuring enough from those in the charge of the …show more content…
For instance, shortly after the siren Jack Herbein held press conference to ease the panic that was set into motion. However, the journalists there became agitated and vicious demanding an explanation, but whatever response Jack Herbein provided was not sufficient. Some of the journalists who went to the press conference has seen “The China Syndrome” movie that portrayed a nuclear meltdown which was released in theaters twelve days before the disaster in three mile island. This can be another explanation as to why the journalists responded in anger during conference. That they already seen what could possibly occur from the movie resulted in anger due to fear. Despite the explaination the concept of hysteria can also be applied in this situation as well. Here the journalists do not have any knowledge of what was actually occurring in the plant. There only source of information they had was from the rumors and since their internal buffers had been broken down they were more susceptible to rumors causing fear in the mass due to