Cities most affected by Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, in terms of media coverage

Posted on March 31, 2011 by fpujolmri • Posted in Countries, Country - Japan, Disasters, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, Event - Tsunami Japan, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Rep Issue -Media Impact Analysis • Tagged Country - Japan, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, index of media impact, Ishinomaki, Japan Earthquake, Japan Tsunami, Kesennuma, Media coverage, media impact, media reputation, Misawa, Miyagi, Narita, nuclear crisis, nuclear disaster, Onagawa, Ranking, Reputation, Reputation Crisis, Sendai, Tokai, Tokyo, tragedy, Tsunami, Yokohama • 9 Comments

*** See also our special Japan one year later, with a summary of all our posts about Japan disaster: Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis in Japan, One Year After – Media Impact Analysis

In a precedent post we showed the evolution of global media coverage received by cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Japan since massive earthquake in March 11, 2011. It referred to news reactions at the very intial stage of Fukushima crisis (news between March 11h and 14th).

We also run an analysis concerning media impact by affected Prefectures, and the relationship between media coverage and actual damages suffered.

Now we focus our analysis in the cities and localities actually affected by the disaster, by the damages reported in personnel and properties directly provoked by the earthquake or the tsunami. Sample also include cities affected by the ongoing nuclear crisis.

In the next figure we show top 20 cities and localities that have received highest levels in terms of international media attention. Data refers to news published till March 27. We have excluded from this table the three cities that have focused media attention during these first three weeks: Fukushima, Tokyo and Sendai. If included, all other cities become almost irrelevant in terms of media impact. Also, as we have seen in a precedent post, in many cases news refer to devastation mentioning regions instead of small localities. Regions in Japan are organized in Prefectures. As we saw, main references are Fukushima Prefecture, followed bt Miyagi and Iwate. Beside the three city outliers, the main reference in the media according to our results is Ishinomaki, with 7.0 points of media value. It means that this locality has received a number of news equivalent to 7 times more than the average of top 100 cities affected by the disaster (excluding big three). Second city by media impact is Kesennuma, with 6.4 points. These two cities have reported 2,700 inhabitants killed by the tsunami, and another 4,160 citizens are accounted missing.

The following table shows the results concerning the 50 cities most affected by the disaster in terms of media value, and factual numbers about deaths and property damages. The list includes top three cities by media coverage: Tokyo, Fukushima and Sendai. Top ranked city is Fukushima, with 235 points of mdia impact. This means that is has received an amount of news 235 times higher than the average of top 100 localities most affected by the earthquake and tsunami (excluding top 3 cities). Second city most present in the news is Tokyo, with 217 points fo media impact. These two cities concentrate all media attention, as Sendai, which comes third, takes a media impact value of 37 points. We can have a reference of how massive is media attention to Fukushima when we realise that media coverage given to Ishinimaki, fourth ranked city, was just 7.0 points.

The sample under analysis concern 463 cities and towns where actual personnel or property damages have been officially reported. The source used is CATDAT and CEDIM (earthquake-report.com). Data is updated by James Daniell. This organization relies in official accounting provided by Police Department. This source was used for the data we presented in the post about Prefectures media impact.

Fukushima reputation will we always linked to the nuclear disaster, even if Fukushima city is situated more than 50 kilometers away from the crippled nuclear site, Daiichi. As it is also kwnown as Fukushima I (against Fukushima II complex, situated some kilometers Noth, in Naraha town), media has labeled the site as Fukushima nuclear plant. The city and the Prefecture of Fukushima will pay the price in terms of negative reputation, even if radioactive contamination does not finally reach all the region or the city.

Present ratio Fukushima/Sendai is also telling about media coverage trend. In our previous post with news between March 11 and March 14, Sendai appeared the media reference just in the aftermath, and in the last measurements Fukushima became yet the media reference, but with a similar media impact value. Now, all tsunami related news are almost disappearing in comparison with the non closed nuclear crisis.

Looking to the ranking of cities, we can appreciate that it exists a close connection between media impact and number of people death and missing. There also some cities in the list that have suffered a limited number of personnel casualties because they were not directly affected by the tsunami as not being coastal cities, but have been severely affected by the earthquake in terms of proprerty and infrastructure destruction. This is probably the case with Koriyama (ranked 23), Mito (36) or Haga (38).

Finally, we find some other locations departing from the common trend, as they appear in the top 50 cities by media coverage received in relation with the disaster, but the figures show that they have not suffered directly relevant casualties. These cases require a specific news content analysis. Once the analysis is performed, we come to the conclusion that their presence in the list is justified, but for other grounds. Last column in the table provides some explanation of their presence in the list.

There are some different groups of locations. There is a group of cities receiving media attention simply because they are the main urban agglomerations in the affected area. This is the case for Yokohama (position 6), Fuji (16) or Kawasaki (28). There is a second group of cities present because they host sites of special infrastructures: the international airport (Narita, position 7), a US Air Force base (Misawa, 24). Ichihara appears in the list (position 42) because the oil refinery suffered damages with spectacular burning images. The third group of locations are all related with the nuclear crisis, and are taking increasing media prevalence in comparison with tsunami devastation related locations. Inside this group we find the cities in the relative nearby of the Daiichi damaged nuclear site. They are in the evacuation zone or not: Soma (position 12), Iilate (22), Ono (40), Kawamata and Date. Finally, there are some other locations in the list because they host other nuclear sites. Onagawa (position 9) and Tokai (19) faced some problems in the aftermath of the earthquake, but they are apparently under control. The other sites have not been damaged, but they appear nevertheless among top locations by media coverage: Kashiwasaki (30) and Yokosuka (37).

Japan Prefectures Media Coverage. Relationship with Personnel and Property Casualties by Earthquake and Tsunami

Posted on March 21, 2011 by fpujolmri • Posted in Countries, Country - Japan, Disasters, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, Event - Tsunami Japan, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Rep Issue -Media Impact Analysis • Tagged Chiba, Country - Japan, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, Fukushima explosion, Ibaraki, index of media impact, Iwate, Japan Earthquake, Japan Tsunami, Media coverage, media impact, Miyagi, nuclear crisis, Prefectures, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Tokyo, Tsunami • 8 Comments

In a precedent post we showed the time evolution of the media impact of the most affected cities in Japan by the earthquake, the tsunami and then the nuclear crisis, among cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Our results showed that media attention to Fukushima nuclear crisis suspassed the media coverage about disaster in Sendai by Marh 12h, two days after the quake.

Now we show some elements concerning the media coverage given to Japanese prefectures affected by the earthquake and the tusnami. We will put our results about media impact in relation with actual damages. We use as source the official figures provided by the National Police Agency of Japan. This agency provides daily updates the damage situation concerning the number of killed and missing people by Prefecture, and other data about property damages. We are conscious that we are dealing in this post with tragedy and suffering when we use death toll as reference measure. We try to be very respectful, but we understand that showing this kind of empirical analysis can be useful for other researchers and scientists.

The list of prefectures included in our analysis pertain to the following regions: Hokkaido, Tohoku and Kanto. They refer to Prefectures 1 to 14 in the map (map by TheOtherJesse [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; originally from Montydrei, English Wikipedia, with no copyright claims).

The following graph show the media impact reached by each Prefecture during the first week after the quake, in media in English in relation with the Japan eathquake.

The prefecture most present in the news as a such (in relation with the Prefecture) is Tokyo, with a media impact value of 3.89 (value 1 corresponds to the level of news received by the avearge of all 14 prefectures scrutinized). Second in importance by media coverage is Fukushima, with 3.63 points. Miyagi follows in third place, with 2.89 points. Other Prefectures with substantive levels of media attentiona are Iwate (1.33), Ibaraki (1.13) and Chiba (0.51).

Now we show these results in parallel with the number of human casualties and property damages in each prefecture.

As explained before, we use as reference the official number of casualties and damages provided by the National Police Agency of Japan (Emergency Disaster Countermeasues Headquarters). Our results indicate that the main Prefectures by media coverage have suffered practically all personnel casualties. They are concentrated in Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate. Tokyo is the main reference in terms of media coverage, but has suffered the earthquake consequences only marginally by comparison (7 people killed). Tokyo is media reference because of capitality and being the most populous city affected by the disaster. Ibaraki receives also more media attention than the number of casualties suffered; this will be explained when referring to propoerty damages. In the opposite side, Iwate Prefecture is less present in the media than the actual personal damages suffered.

Next figure compares media coverage to the extent of property damages. In some Prefectures this measure is in line with the death toll and missing people, but Toguichi and Ibaraki supported relevant material damages with a reduced number of human victims.

Iwate Prefecture concentrates the highest number of properties classified as totally collapsed (74.7% of all cases). Again, we find that this Prefecture has suffered a devastation which has not received the same amount of media coverage than other Prefectures. Media coverage received by Ibaraki, Chiba and Toguichi is explained by physical devastation, while we showed in the precedent figure that they were basically spared from human casualties.

We have analyzed the global relationship between media coverage received by the 14 Prefectures during the first week and the extent of the human casualties and damages to property. We have excluded from the analysis the case of Tokyo, as it behaves as an outlier. We have estimated simple correlations.

Death toll appears to be the main driver of media coverage to Japan disaster. The combined number of killed and missed persons reaches a correlation coefficient of 0.80. Looking at the relationship between media coverage and property damages, we find that the relation is stronger concerning collapsed homes, totally or partially, than for partially damages houses. This is probably reflecting the fact that media attention turned to devastation caused by the tsunami, rather than the direct impact of the earthquake.

If we use mixed measures of personnel and property damages, the relationship with media coverage is not improved.