Prioritizing the Media Functions for Effective Pre-Disaster Management Phase by Using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

The crisis is a situation that creates a sudden change in one or more part of a system. The crisis could have consequences and devastating effects on the society. In time of disaster, the role of mass media as a most powerful tool in managing public opinion in disaster management is very bold. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and prioritize the media functions in pre-disaster management phase.
This is a survey study that researchers by using a questionnaire gathered data from experts in the filed of disaster management and media management. To prioritize the media functions in effectivemanagement, the questionnaire was answered by 12 media experts in Kerman province and to analyze gathered data was used AHP method and then based on theweight of given data, we did prioritizing and at the end the obtained inconsistency rate was 0.02107 that reflected the accuracy of results.
Findings and The findings indicate that the media could play an important role in managing pre-disaster phase; therefore it’s recommended by acting based on prepared priorities by experts do forecasting, preventing and preparing for disasters.