Remembering New York 9/11 Attack. A Partisan Media Coverage Issue.

Posted on September 9, 2011 by fpujolmri • Posted in Disasters, Pers - Bin Laden, Rep Issue - Media Bias, Rep Issue - Newspapers • Tagged 9/11, Country - United States, Democratic Party, Media coverage, media impact, New York, New York 9/11, New York Attack, Obama, Pers - Bin Laden, Rep Issue - Media Bias, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Republican Party, September 11, Terrorism, tragedy • 1 Comment

In a couple of days News York and all United States will remember solemny the worst attack ever suffered by Americans in United States soil, ten years ago.

Media coverage is becoming massive, not only in the United States media, but also globally. Additional media attention comes from the official alert of risks of a new Al Qaida “credible threat”.

Even if the attack struck New York and New Yorkers, this memorial is a national major event. It is receiving media attention from all over United States.

As like any other relevant major event, expected or unexpected, we can explore at MRI Universidad de Navarra which kind of specific insights we can gather from analysing its media coverage.

Here our proposal is to measure state by state media behaviour concerning the memorial of New York terror attack. We can group the newspapers by states and then create global results by each state.

The main result that we have obtained with the news published up to September 9 is that the degree of media attention by state is sensitive to party ideology. Our procedure is not to label each individual journal by a supposed party bias. Our strategy is to use the information concerning recent voting patterns in each state. Democratic orientes states will count with more democrat oriented newspapers than average, and the opposite is expected to happen with Republican oriented states.

We present the results concerning the intensity of media coverage given to New York 9/11 attack and memorial news, grouping states by Republican-Democratic profile.

We have used different measures to group states into each side:

1. States by Governor’s party.

2. States presenting a strong partisan voting in the 2008 US presidential elections. We define strong partisan voting when the voting margin is higher than 20 points.

3. States presenting a partisan voting in the 2008 US presidential elections. We define partisan voting when the voting margin is higher than 10 points.

For each measurement, we have estimated two values: weighted and unweighted state averages.

In all the measures estimated we find that Republican states tend to provide a higher media coverage to New York 9/11 than Democtratic oriented states.

Strauss-Kahn Assault Allegations (1). Initial Media Perception and Reputation Impact

Posted on May 15, 2011 by fpujolmri • Posted in Org - IMF, Political Leaders, Rep Issue - Communication Crisis, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue -Media Impact Analysis • Tagged Country - United States, International Monetary Found, media impact, media reputation, Org - IMF, Reputation, Reputation Crisis, scandal, Strauss-Kahn, Strauss-Kahn Assault, Strauss-Kahn Attack, tragedy • 1 Comment

We have learnt that few hours ago the Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, IMF, Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been arrested under the allegations of a sexual assault at Sofitel in New York.

Whatever the final outcome of this affaire for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, it will produce a massive media coverage worldwide. We will monitor the impact of this scandal crisis in the institutional reputation of IMF.

We present here some results built with media content analysis of articles published by May 15, 11 am (CET). We provide first analysis by comparing media reputation right now of IMF and Strauss-Kahn, with news these last 20 days. News about Strauss-Kahn are almost all linked to the sexual attack, while IMF include also many non related news.

First figure shows one of our emotional vector brands. We find that there is a very poor association of these two brands with “Acclaimed”.

Next three figures show the brand reputation concerning rational vectors. Degree of association is poor concerning “Excellence”, average concerning “Leadership and Commitment” and high concerning “Innovative, Efficiency”. Strauss-Kahn reputation is higher than IFM institutional reputation in these areas.

Looking at negative brand vectors, which will be highly affected by the assult affaire, we find that concerning “Scandal”, both brands are substantially associated to it, especially in vectors components scandal, corruption and emabarrassing.

As for vector “Tradegy”, degree of association is strong ang higher for IMF institutional reputation. Strauss-Kahn is lower in general, except for components tragedy, awful and horrible.

Update (18 May 2011)

Even if we will analyze the impact of IMF scandal inother new posts, we want to complete this post showing a 3 days-later media reputation profile of Strauss-Kahn case. Like this, a comparison of the specifi impact of the scandal is easily visible.

We show how all news about Strauss-Kahn are getting a new profile, as just three days after the anouncement of the arrest, massive media coverage to the scandal is overcoming the weight of precedent news unrelated with the scandal.

Now, the brand vector “Scandal” shows a sharp increase of the association of DSK news with scandal. Compared to initial media coverage, DFK followed the same perception profile tahn the institution, IMF. Now, we find a strong increase of association to vector components like scandalous, embarrassing, mistake, harm and awful. Now, the DSK case is clearly harming IMF reputation concerning “Scandal”.

Vector “Tragedy” has also experienced changes in Strauss-Kahn profile. It increases his association to components harm, tragedy, awful and horrible The only vectors that keep sable are worst, failure and catastrophic. All of them seem more related to IMF institutional activities.

Initial media coverage showed us the starting reputational framework for both Dominique Sratuss-Kahn and International Monetary Found. The update included in the post shows the direction of that this reputation crisis will take. All this is analyzed in new posts.

Other posts

The Reputational Curse of Political Sex Scandals: The Impact of Schwarzenegger and Strauss-Kahn Scandals on Bill Clinton (and Monica Lewinsky) Reputation

Strauss-Kahn Arrest (2). Impact on IMF Reputation. Comparison with World Bank, United Nations and Other International Organizations

AFLAC Media Reputation: Impact of Jokes About Tsunami in Japan

Risky Business: When T-Mobile Dances with the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton

Companies Reputation and Wikileaks: Bank of America Case

Mourinho Reputation. The Impact of UEFA Disciplinary Case in Real Madrid Image

Bin Laden Killing News Storyline 1. Pakistan Media Coverage versus International Media (Ex USA)

Chernobyl and Three Mile Island References in News About Fukushima Nuclear Crisis

Posted on April 12, 2011 by fpujolmri • Posted in Countries, Country - Japan, Disasters, Event - Fukushima, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Rep Issue - Communication Crisis, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue -Media Impact Analysis • Tagged Chernobyl, Country - Japan, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, Fukushima explosion, IAEA, index of media impact, INES, Japan Earthquake, Japan Tsunami, Level 7, Media coverage, media impact, NISA, nuclear crisis, nuclear disaster, Three Mile Island, tragedy • 6 Comments

In one of our initial posts about the Japan massive earthquake and the nuclear crisis in Fukushima nuclear plant we showed to which extent media from different countries used Chernobyl nuclear disaster as reference included in news about the initial stages of Fukushima nuclear crisis. It was posted by March 16, just three days after the explosion in the nuclear facility. The severity of the accident was established as Level 4 by NISA and IAEA. But French nuclear watchdog considered it already as a Level 6 accident. Chernobyl was catalogued as a major accident, Level 7. In that moment, Chernobyl appeared in some 15-20% of all news in Europe (with a maximum of 29% in France). US media converage reached 25% of all news about Fukushima. In Asian countries, average relationship with Chernobyl was higher, between 20 and 34% of all news about Fukushima.

Today, April 12, almost a month later, NISA has raised its evaluation of Fukushima nuclear problems from Level 5 to Level 7. This is the maximum level, the same as Chernobyl. This upgrade of the assessment of the severity of the accident will probably have an incidence of Fukushima storyline media coverage from now on, that we will continue to monitor and analyze. This new evaluation will also have an impact on the ongoing nuclear debate in many countries in the world.

We show in this post the time evolution of the references to Chernobyl disaster when covering the Fukushima nuclear crisis. We compare it to the the references given to Three Mile Island. In this nuclear plant, a nuclear accident in February 28, 1979 provoked a reactor partial meltdown. This accident was catalogued as a Level 5 in INES scale, which was till today the equivalent to Fukushima accident.

Our results show that from the very beginning Chernobyl accident was the main reference used by the media. It took an initial media impact value of some 8 points, againts a value of 3.5 points for Three Mile Island references. Media impact value refers to the relative weight of mentions to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island inside the general news storyline about Fukushima. So, a decreasing path reveals that media tend to use in a relative lower extent Chernobyl as element of news about Fukushima. We observe a sustained decreasing path till the end of March, when Chernobyl presence reaches a minimum of some 5.5 points. We observe a new upward trend since one week. Before today announcement, Chernobyl media impact value was 6.5 points. Right now it in the neraby of 8 points of media impact., becoming a new maximum in the series. Expect logically further increases in at least in the next few days.

Concerning Three Mile Island time evolution, we observe an upward trend since March 18. In that day the Japanese agency upgraded the severity of the accident from level 4 to level 5, makint it equivalent to Three Mile Island. media impact value soared in two days from 3.0 to 4.2. After this peak, a decreasing trend emerges, dropping to a minimum of 2.3 points. Right now it moves in the 3.0 area.

In the following figure we show how media has evolved in using these two past nuclear accidents as references. An upward trend indicates that media use more Chernobyl references than Three Mile Island. In the afthermath of the explosions, and specially when the third blast was suffered by the nuclear facility, fears and references to Chernobyl increased. Paradoxically, when the increase of the nuclear problems was aknowledged, Chernobyl power decreased, as Three Mile Island was the past nuclear accident similar to actual. A sharp increase of the relative presence of Chernobyl news appear at the beginning of May. Evidently, we expect to observe in the coming days a sharp increase of this ratio.

In the following graph we show how we monitor a similar information. In this case we show the evolution of the direct references of the INES values concerning the evaluation of Fukushima nuclear accident. We show here the weight of references of top INES levels since the beginning of the problems. Initial media references were marginal. They multiplied when NISA decided to raise the nuclear problem from Level 4 to Level 5. Media refer logically to both switching measures. By comparison, there is almost no references to an upgrade of the severity of the nuclear problem to Level 6 or 7. References to INES scale tend to lose weight till 22-23 March. We observe a dramatic drop at the beginning of April. This is due to the fact that we show three weeks moving-average values. The collapse shows thta reference to INES scale were concentrated around the day when the upgrade was made (March 18), and thereafter references are just marginal.

Of course, today we experience a new era concerning these series, as references to Level 7 explode, counting just with news few hours after the announcement. This initial reaction suggest that media presence of Level 7 news will be much higher than previous references to Level 5 references in the news.

Haiti and Japan Earthquake Media Coverage During the First Month

Posted on April 8, 2011 by fpujolmri • Posted in Countries, Country - Japan, Disasters, Earthquake, Event - Tsunami Japan • Tagged Country - Japan, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, Haiti, Haiti earthquake, Japan Earthquake, Japan Tsunami, Media coverage, nuclear crisis, scandal, tragedy, Tsunami • 3 Comments

The first post about the disaster in Japan showed the initial media perception about the earthquake and the tsunami, just few hours after it hit Tohoku Island. In order to provide a key to lecture of the results, we showed media perception concerning the vector “Tragedy” in comparison with some recent natural disasters: massive earthquakes in Haiti (2010), Chile (2010) and Turkey (2010). We observed a clear common pattern in terms of initial media coverage perception. We compared media profile about Japan disaster in comaprison with human made disasters, and we found out that media perception was completely different, even if both are perceived as “Tragedy”.

This post will expand the analysis of media perception about massive natural disasters. We will compare the evolution of media perception during the initial four weeks after the earthquake both concerning Haiti and Japan. These two events are comparable in many facets, as for massive physical destruction and huge amount of human casualties. Each event present also its particularities. Haiti earthquake was not that severe in terms of enegergy, but was by far more destructive because of bad preparedness of this caribbean country to major seisms. Haiti earthquake completely collapsed the country economy, as it affected the capital, and it is considered the poorest country in the Americas. Haiti needed internatial aid and relief services, as it does not count with the required means. The aftermath of the Japan disaster was more related than Haiti to international economic and business consequences, as Japan is a key market in many areas, not only as consumer, but also as produced. Devastation in Japan was linked to the effects of the tsunami, that didn’t affect Haiti. Finally, Japan is suffering from a severe nuclear crisis derived from the tsunami, which of cours was not present in Haiti media coverage.

We count with media coverage of both events in a daily basis, as we count with a similar information with many other relevant crisis. Results concerning Haiti and other events are not published, but the stroage of these data allows us to use it now in order to better understand global media coverage of Japan disaster.

We open our empirical analysis by showing the time evolution of media perception of Haiti earthquake, week by week, concerning first the vector “Tragedy”.

Our results indicate that while media perception keeps basicalay the same profile, there are some noticeable movements. Comparing the initial stage to the following weeks position, we find that it increases notable the degree of association to horrible. Remember that news in the weeks following the earthquake referred to the increasing and the unprecedented number of victims. In the initial weeks there is an increase of association to components tragedy and harm, but it tend to decrease to initial stage after four weeks.

Next figure shows the same result, but applied to media coverage of Japan disaster. Comparing initial to final media perception, we find that in contrast with Haiti case, there is not an observable increase of association to component horrible. In fact, it tends to progressively decrease. Other components following a simira decreasing path are catastrophic and tragedy. The component experiencing a sustained increase as weeks pass is worst.

In the next figures we show the comparative media coverage to Haiti and Japan in terms of “Tragedy”, in its evolution week by weeks. The global picture shows clearly that while media treats massive earthquake in a similar way right in the aftermath, the specific profile of each event determine and influence the evolution of media perception.

The dynamics of the relationship of news covering Haiti and Japan concerning the perception as “Tragedy” is revealing. As already mentioned, starting point in both natural disasters are almost identical. But, soon, just after a week, it can be observed a differenciated media trend that will remain in the following weeks: media focus more on components tragedy, harm and horrible when referring to Haiti, while Japan disaster is more oriented to worst and failure. Components linked to Haiti rely on the extraordinary number of death and the suffering and measures to find survivors. Components associated to Japan are based in the fact that the earthquake as one of the most powerful ever (magnitude 9.0), and the association to failure indicates a human made component of the disaster, reflecting the specific profile of news referring to Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The evolution in the following weeks is basically mantained. After three and four weeks (our results refer to cummulative news, and not to week by week news) we observe an increase of association of Japanese disaster with the components harm and tragedy. This result is probably in relation with the approach followed by the Police Agency concerning the estimation of death toll and missing people. In Haiti it was evident since the first weeks that the death toll could exceed 100,000 people death. In sharp contrast, in Japan, the number of people accounted death or missing was submitted to a very conservative approach. Numbers ranged from hundreds to few thousands in week one and two. Numbers increase to more than 10,000 in week three and almost 30,000 people officially death or missing in week four.

The media reputation vector most relevant for analysing the media coverage of a natural disaster is “Tragedy”, and this is why we have provided an extensive analysis. We show now some complementary results concerning other meaningful media reputation vectors.

First reference is vector “Scandal”. This vector is more sensitive to crisis with a human origin. We have shwon several empirical cases, like the impact of AFLAC jokes about tsunami, or the impact of Wikileaks revelations on the reputation of corporations like Chevron or Bank of America.

The initial news content in the aftermath of the earthquake showed a slighle higher association to scandal in Haiti case than in Japan. Bigger difference refers to component emabarrassing. In general, initial news about earthquake consequences did not attach a high level of association to scandal.

Four weeks later, media perception concerning vector “Scandal” is basically unchanged. It does not tend to increase in anyone of two cases. There is a small profiling trend: Haiti case derives to components embarrassing and scandalous, Japan is more associated to corruption. Japan case reveals probably again the incidence of the news profile about the nuclear crisis, Haiti profile shows the urgency created by the needs of a extremely poor country.

Media reputation vector “Respected, Coherent” requires specific lectures according to the framework of each issue covered by the media. It has a different meaning for companies than for people or here for events.

Initial association right in the aftermath of the earthquake show again a very similar media pattern concerning “Respected, Coherent”. The degree of association of natural disasters to this media reputation vector is relatively low. Four weeks after the events, we find that the degree of association has increased in several components when covering Haiti disaster, like compassion, respected, happiness or aspirational. All this reflect that news content about Haiti showed compassion with the extreme suffering of survivors, in desperate need of external aid.

Final couple of figures refer to the media percpetion vector “Institutional”. This is a vector that we show for the first time in this blog. Media perception of a company, people, institution, country or event can be associated to any element of a storyline. We use to present in this blog and in our analysis those vectors that can be considered more relevants for reputation, but we can create as many vectors as we want. “Institutional” vector refers to the degree of association to key institutional and political features, like government, democracy, politics or economy.

As natural disasters are geographically related, media covers massive natural disasters using always country coordenates and framing. It is thus not surprising to find that initial media coverage both in Haiti and in Japan show relative big levels of media association in the “Institutional” vector. As in all precedent vectors, we find again that initial media reaction produce basically the same picture in Haiti and Japan cases.

The evolution of media perception concerning “Institutional” four weeks after the earthquake show that the degree of association increases notably in Japan with the components banking and economy. This result clearly indicates the different media perception of the implications and news content when a natural disaster affects a rich country in comparison with media coverage given to economicly weak Haiti. many news about Japan earthquake deal with the assessment of the economic consequences of the disaster for Japan and for the global economy.

The other components of “Institutional” vector are stable, and very similar in both cases.

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).

New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (II) About The Nuclear Debate

Posted on March 24, 2011 by fpujolmri • Posted in Corp - New York Times, Corp - Wall Street Journal, Countries, Country - Japan, Country - United States, Disasters, Event - Fukushima, Event - Tsunami Japan, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Rep Issue - Media Bias, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Rep Issue - Storyline Analysis • Tagged Associated Press, cancer, Contamination, Corp - New York Times, Corp - Wall Street Journal, Country - Japan, Country - United States, Death Toll, Debt, Dollar, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, Fears, health, Health risk, Investments, Iodine, Japan Earthquake, Japan Tsunami, Media coverage, media impact, media reputation, Missing, Nikkey, nuclear crisis, nuclear disaster, NYT, Oil Prices, Panic, radioactive, Rep Issue - Newspapers, sicentists, Tokyo, Tokyo Electric Power, tragedy, Tsunami, WSJ • 6 Comments

This post is the continuation of the previous one. It analyzes how New York Times and Wall Street Journal are portraying the news about the Japanese disaster and the Fukushima nuclear crisis. We can pursue an individual analysis of each newspaper storyline, as it refers to an event with massive media coverage. New York Times results are based in the content analysis of more than 200 news published till March 21, 2011, and some 1,300 news by Wall Street Journal.

We continue to show in this post the empirical results concerning the storyline profile of each newspaper. We use also as term of comparison the results concerning the average media coverage given by all US newspapers in our sample. Please refer to the precedent post for additional explanations about metholodogy and interpretation of the results.

The first figure we show in this post is revealing. It refers to the use of adjectives concerning the evolution of Fukushima nuclear crisis. We have monitored the couples improve/worsen, improving/worsening and optimism/pessimism. The results are striking. There is no different use concerning “improve”, but there is a consistent bias in using all other terms. Things “worsen” or are “worsening” much more for NYT than for WST. And things are “improving” much more for WSJ than for NYT. Also in the same line, “optimism” is much more present in WSJ articles than in NYT.

If we comapre the two leading newspapers against the US newspapers average, results tend to suggest that “worsening” and “improving” are keywords for the modelling of the storyline. Things are “improving” much more if we read WSJ in comparison to US newspapers, things are “worsening” much more if we rely on NYT articles in comparison to all US newspapers.

In the precedent post we showed in figure 4 how Fukushima is defined as event. “Nuclear crisis” predominates, with 4.5 points of media impact. In relative terms, NYT preferred the to use “nuclear accident”, while WSJ privileged “nuclear disaster” and “nuclear emergency”.

We add new content analysis about the media coverage given concerning the impact of damages of Fukushima nuclear crisis on human health. Main US newspapers reference is a generic “health risks”, with 1.8 points. But both NYT and WSJ prefer to use a more aseptic terminology: “health effects”, and this is specially the case in WSJ articles. If we look at media coverage of specific risks for health linked to nuclear radiation, we find again that WSJ departs clearly from common US newspapers trend. WSJ systematically underreportss media references to specific issues on nuclear and heath, like cancer, iodine, the milk and spinach from Fukushima Prefecture farms reported as contaminated or the radioactive iodine found in tap water in Tokyo. By contrast, NYT tends to follow the same rate of media coverage than other US newspapers, sharing the same storyline in this chapter.

Next figure is again focused in the storyline chapter referring to the impact of Fukushima nuclear crisis. Previous figure referred to effects on human health. Next one looks at media coverage to the seriousness of the radioactive emissions and about the evaluation of how harmful could they be.

Wall Street Journal and New York Times focus massively on “radioactive contamination” by comparison to US newspapers. As for the keywords referring to the extent of the damages, we find here the mirror of the previous figure. Now is WSJ that follows common US newspapers trend on these issues, while WSJ journalists depart and create a specific storyline profile: they insists much more than WSJ and average US newspapers on risks and damages associated to Fukushima and, again, in a systematic way. This applies to “danger zone”, “extemely high”, “lethal radiation” or “fission”.

Both figures 7 and 8 show us a clear biased interpretation and explanation of the events occurring in Fukushima nuclear plant.

The following figure shows the external references and sources cited by NYT and WSJ. This ongoing crisis contains a strong technical component, as the evaluation of nuclear damages requires to know and explain the functioning of a nuclear power and the implications of radioactivity in human health. Thus, Fukushima storyline requires the contribution of external sources. Main reference used is the category of “experts”, with a US media impact of 3.7 points. Then come the “scientists”, with 1.7 points. There is also reference to “technicians” (0.4 points), but it mainly refers to in the field technicians trying to solve and stop the radiation emissions. We find that NYT follows common pattern, while WSJ clearly deviates in this area, and refers to a much lower extent to such external references when constructing its Fukushima storyline.

Both NYT and specially WSJ refer in a lower extent than US newspapers average to news and information provided by Associated Press. A similar but less pronounced path is followed concerning the use of Reuters references. This is not a susprising result if we assume the initial hypothesis in the previous post that even if NYT and WSJ are not news agencies, they play in fact a similar role as news content provider to other newspapers because of their nature of leading influential newspapers. If this is the case, they should rely more on own sources than in information provided by agencies than the average US newspapers, as it actually happens.

Figure 10 refers to storyline keywords showing feelings and reactions to the disaster and crisis. Many of them refer mainly to Fukushima nuclear crisis. Main reference used is “concerns”, followed by “fears”. In both cases NYT uses this terminology in a lower extent than US newspapers and WSJ. Less used terms like “panic” and “dramatic” tend to be introduced more profusely in WSJ articles than in other media.

Figure 11 refers mainly to wording about the damages produced by the Tohoku earthquake and the subsequent tsunami in coastal areas. Main individual references are to consider it as a “disaster” and refer to “damages”. We observe that all sources give basically the same weight to these main defining components associated to the Japan earthquake.

The difference in media coverage profile appears concerning all other issues related with physical and personnel damages linked to the catastrophe. In a very systematic way, average US newspapers provide a wider media coverage to each single issue in comparison to NYT, and NYT covers in a wider extent all these issues than WSJ. Our interpretation of this result, which appears to be consistent all the way is not that NYT and WSJ are not as sensitive to casualties, tragedy and destruction than other US newspapers. To our understanding, this result tends to confirm our initial assumption that both NYT and WSJ assume their role as leading and influential newspapers. They understand that their mission is not just to inform and descrive the events in their most direct consequences (victims, death toll, missing people, debris). In consequence, they add to this basic storyline new description analysis and interpretation of the implications and effects of both the disaster and the nuclear crisis. They play a role in providing insights to public opinion. According to our judgement, this result also reflects that the different media coverage given by NYT and WSJ to Fukushima nuclear crisis is not simply a factual result, but it reflects two different positions in the US nuclear energy debate.

We interpret the lower weight given by WSJ in comparison to NYT in the media coverage of the direct personnel and property damages to the fact that WSJ is obliged to cover in a wider extent than NYT the analysis of the economic consequences of the the earthquake and tsunami. This different profile is clearly reflected in figure 12.

The content of figure 12 is all related to economic and business issues. If our storyline technique made sense, we should observe here that WSJ focus on these issues in a much wider extent than NYT and average US newspapers. Empirical results are in line with expected results. This is with no doubt the specific field developed within WSJ news. In comparison to all US newspapers and NYT, the specific issues more sensitive to WSJ analysis are the dollar, the impact on investments and the problems with the huge amounts of Japanese debt. Nikkey and oil prices are also elements of special preoccupation for WSJ.

Concerning issues that receive lower levels of media attention, we find that WSJ is specially concerned or sensitive to taxes, the role of Bank of Japan and the implications of the destruction in supply chain outside Japan.

Last two figures of this post are oriented to show the newspapers position about the debate on nuclear energy opened by the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Taking into account the information gathered from all precedent figures in this and previous post, it can be stated that New York Times and Wall Stree Journal defend and present well defined different positions about nuclear power, in the way the present the storyline of disaster in Japan.

Final figures refer directly about nuclear debate and about the possible sustitutive role of renewable energies. It is clear that this set of issues relates to local US interests. If results about nuclear debate are coherent with the rest of the storyline, we should expect to find a partisan approach, with WSJ defending the nuclear power and NYT considering renewable energy.

Figure 13 shows primarily the presence given to two opposed camps. “Nuclear energy” and “nuclear industry” are present in a wider extent in NYT articles. Presence in WSJ is in line with US average. But remember that WSJ is a business oriented journal. The natural result if this was a neutral business issue should be to find that media coverage by WSJ about the nuclear industry would higher than average (as it happended with neutral economic issues related to the tsunami and earthquake, as shown in figure 12). Actual result should then be considered as underreporting about the nuclear industry.

Concerning the other party in the debate, we find that WSJ use to refer to opponents as “protesters”. NYT writes about “opponents”, “anti-nuclear” or “activists”, and this in a higher proportion than US newspapers. NYT gives more space to nuclear opponents in the storyline than average. Use of these terms is marginal in WSJ news.

Another element showing a partisan position against nuclear power by NYT is that it refers in a substantial higher extent than all other newspapers to BP oil spill, in relation with Fukushima news.

Figure 14 shows to which extent the newspapers refer to alternative sources of energy in the context of Fukushima crisis. Once again, there is a systematic broken pattern. New York Times refers much more extensively than Wall Street Journal to renewable related energies. We find that WSJ refer to alternative sources in a wider extent than US newspapers but, as for its nature of economic driven paper and creator of content analysis, a really neutral coverage to these items would probably imply a much higher media coverage than actual.

Global picture emerging from all graphs is that Fukushima has actully become a national US debate about the future of the nuclear power in the United States. New York Times assumes a leading role in considering a more aggressive energy policy based in renewable sources, by the way if covers Fukushima nuclear crisis news. Wall Street Journal appears clearly positioned as favorable to the nuclear industry, and the media strategy followed is not to enter into the nuclear debate, presenting instead a passive and low-profile attitude, by minimizing coverage to content related with risks and dangers of Fukushima events, and by using a “no news” approach about renewable energy.

Other posts

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Movimiento 15-M, Democracia Real Ya: Perception by Local Newspapers El Mundo, El País, Intereconomía, Público

Bin Laden Killing News Storyline 1. Pakistan Media Coverage versus International Media (Ex USA)

Japan XIII. New York Times and Wall Street Journal Coverage of Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (I)

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

Japan XI. Companies in Europe Most Affected by Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, by Media Impact

Japan IX. Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Media Views in United States, United Kindgom, Australia and India.

Japan VIII. Wikileaks on Fukushima and the Japan Nuclear Crisis. Measurement of the Initial Media Storyline.

Japan VII. Fukushima as a Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: Media References by Countries

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Media Storyline: The Actors (TEPCO, the Workers, IAEA), The Nuclear Debate, The Economy

Posted on March 19, 2011 by fpujolmri • Posted in Companies, Countries, Country - Australia, Country - India, Country - Japan, Country - United Kingdom, Country - United States, Disasters, Event - Fukushima, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Political Leaders, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Rep Issue - Storyline Analysis • Tagged Akihito, Amano, companies, Country - Japan, Country - United States, Earthquake, Edano, Event - Fukushima, Greenpeace, IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency, Jaczko, Japan Earthquake, Japan Tsunami, Media coverage, media impact, media reputation, Merkel, Naoto Kan, nuclear crisis, nuclear disaster, Obama, Political Leaders, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Reputation, TEPCO, Tokyo Electric Power, tragedy • 1 Comment

This post follows the precedent one (Japan IX). Please check it for explanations about how data is gathered and calculated.

In this second part we show some additional storyline components. They deal mainly with the actors of the crisis, as portrayed by newspapers from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and India. We will refer also the how media is giving media coverage to other implication of this disaster: about the nuclear debate, and about the economic consequences.

First two figures refer to public institutions and personalities directly or indirectly affected by the Fukushima nuclear problem in terms of decisions, competencies or responsibilites.

Main media reference is TEPCO, Tokyo Electric Power, the company that manages the troubled nuclear plant. It is the main reference in all countries. The company is scrutinized apparently by the media as the main responsible for managing the crisis and limiting the nuclear damages. In future posts we will show results about media reputation analysis about TEPCO.

The following prominent public figures are the Japanese Government as an entity, the Prime Minister Naoto Kan and the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. They al share a very similar media exposure. Mr Kan prevails are reference for Australian media, while Yukio Edano is the reference for US and UK media.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is the third actor in importance in terms of media impact in the Fukushima crisis storyline. For American media they play a minor role (1.5 points of media impact) in comparison with Mr. Edano (3.0 points). By contrast, Australia offers a wide coverage to IAEA, similar to weight given to local Japanese authorities. Also Indian media gives a major role than US and UK colleagues.

At this point, US President Barack Obama plays a significative role in this crisis only for US media.

Other actors with a relevent role according to media are presented in the following figure. Yukiya Amano, from Japan, is the current Director of the IAEA. His media coverage profile by countries is quite in line with that given to IAEA. The following person in importance by media coverage in relation to Fukushima is Gregory JaczKo. He is the chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. His remarks in front of the US Congress depicting a somber evaluation of the Fukushima crisis has had not only a national impact in US media, but also in the other countries monitored.

Emperor Akihito offered a public appearance and declaration about how “deeply worried” he was with the earthquake and tsunami disaster. His presence hs been portrayed mainly by British newspapers. At this moment (with news up to March 18), Greenpeace is playing a marginal role, as it captures merely 0.1-0.2 points of media impact by the media of our selected countries. World Health Organization is not being used as reference up to now.

In the following figure we show some elements concerning how the Japanese nuclear crisis is opening the nuclear debate in each country. Remember that only Australia does not use nuclear power. We will probably show in the future a deeper analysis on this issue.

We find that Australia media refers less than the other countries to these issues, specially concerning nuclear industry, protesters, activists and nuclear lobby. Apparently at this point it is a more sensitive issue for media in India. There is ongoing media coverage about the nuclear industry in United States and United Kingdom.

Next figure refers to storyline content directly related to business and the economy. It give some insights of the weight of economic considerations against the other ongoing issues, and suggest which economic issues are considered most relevant right now. The impact of the nuclear crisis, and of the Tohohu tsunami on exchange rates between Yen and Dollar appear to be a leading issue in terms of media coverage. The impact on Yen valuation is highly covered by US media. Media from India is specially sensitive to the economic impact and the impact on oil prices. The concern about the impact of the Japanese disaster on the stock markets come as a second lin issue. According to our results, there is only a marginal mention in the media about possible impact in the financial crisis and economic crisis. This is currently not a major concern for media in all four countries monitored.

Final figure considers other actors related to the crisis in a very direct and dramatic way in some cases, like the workers and the emergency workers, and others in an indirect way, like scientists and experts. Our approach allows to provide answers concerning the media coverage provided to each group in each country.

The role of workers in Fukushima nuclear crisis is the main reference group for media. Media from US insist more than others. This pattern is repeated when referring more specifically to emergency workers. The group of authorities comes second, are more favoured by media from Australia and India.

The nuclear crisis is special in its media coverage as it requires explanations about technical issues to be understood by public opinion, and the severity of the events ask for innovative measures and solutions, and opens forecasts to unchartered ways. This is why specialists acquire a substantial role in the storyline of the Fukushima news coverage. According to our results, main media reference group is the so called “experts”, with a high media impact value of 4-5 points. They are specially used as source or reference by media from India and Australia. Then follows the group of scientists, with a media impact value around 1 point. They are most widely used by US media. Finally, the group of technicians take some 0.5 points of media impact, and again is US media the ones more focussing on theyr role and contribution.