IRAQI PRESS AND ITS ROLE IN DISASTER RISK EDUCATION

Despite the fact that the Arab region (including Iraq) underwent many disasters e.g. floods and heavy rains though on a limited scale; the media paid and increasingly a particular attention to the news tracking of types of risks related to climate and losses resulted there from. The importance of this topic is singled out through the concurrence of this analysis with the exposure of many Iraqi provinces to heavy rains causing disastrous floods. This analysis pinpointed the art of news tracking in the Iraqi press and its vital role in awareness of risks and resultants of such disasters (Flood accidents) as cited in the Iraqi Al-Zaman Newspaper for the period (1/12/2012) until (29/2/2013). This analysis intends to explore the extent or degree the Iraqi local press is able to aware of such types of risks and deemed one of the descriptive researches in using the content analysis format as a tool to garner records. One of the most figured out conclusions is it appeared that the Iraqi press is a narrative and explanatory press and not informative as it managed to invest the art of press tracking to aware people of the risks of climate -related natural disasters e.g. floods and heavy rains. These conclusions paid a particular attention to what is presented by the Iraqi local press through figuring out the category of degree of awareness of the extent of sufferings of the affected people due to the continuous rains fall and floods resulting in collapse of houses, inadequacy or unavailability of sewerage systems, mines, explosives, unexploded ordnance UXO and missiles erosion that might threatens the life of farmers and local inhabitants.