Tag Archives: Tsunami

Haiti and Japan Earthquake Media Coverage During the First Month

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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.

Other Posts

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

Japan XVII. Haiti and Japan Earthquake Media Coverage During the First Month

Japan XVI AFLAC Media Reputation: Impact of Jokes About Tsunami in Japan

Japan XV. American Companies Most Affected by Earthquake, Tsunami or Nuclear Crisis in Japan, by Media Impact

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

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.

AFLAC Media Reputation: Impact of Jokes About Tsunami in Japan

Posted on by • Posted in Companies, Corp - AFLAC, Country - Japan, Country - United States, Disasters, Event - Tsunami Japan, Rep Issue - Communication Crisis, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 7 Comments

(NOTE: You can download here a pdf version of this post, edited by Media, Reputation and Intangibles center, MRI Universidad de Navarra. It contains additional analysis about media reputation of AFLAC rivals, like Metlife, Prudential Financial or Aetna).

In a recent post we showed the list of American companies most affected by the earthquake and tsunami in terms of global media coverage. AFLAC was one of the top ranked companies. As explained there, this was partially due to the fact that this insurance company has a substantial business presence in Japan. We mentioned also that some of the news appearances were related to jokes from a representative of the company using the tsunami as elements of the joke. These jokes were known widely, as they were published by the author trough Twitter. The author of the joke was almost inmediately fired from the company. These events happened on March 14, only three days after the earthquake. As the incresing dimension of the tragedy was evident at that moment and media coverage was massive, this affaire attracted a substantial amount of media attention.

The responsible of the jokes was comedian Gilbert Gottfried. He was the “voice” of AFLAC duck, the official mascot of the company, and apparently present in more than 50 different commercials. Gottfried was working for the company for almost ten years. The press release by AFLAC stated that it “announced today that it has severed ties with comedian Gilbert Gottfried.

“Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac,” Aflac Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Michael Zuna said. “Aflac Japan – and, by extension, Japan itself – is part of the Aflac family, and there is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times.”

Japan is a crucial market for AFLAC. According to AFLAC Company Fact Sheet, they are “the number one insurance company in terms of individual insurance policies in force in Japan”. AFLAC considers that is also a top mind brand in Japan “Promote our number one brand position –We will capitalize on our market-leading status to attract consumers and distinguish our products while emphasizing the attributes that led us to our number one position.” According to their corporate overview: “Aflac Japan is the number one insurance company in Japan in terms of individual policies in force and the largest foreign insurer in Japan in terms of premium income. Aflac Japan also ranks first in the number of individual policies in force among all of Japan’s life insurers and is the fifth most profitable foreign company in any industry in Japan.”

This “lacking in humor” jokes were judged with severity by many media. Negative comments range from “bad taste and judgement” (Washington Post), “insensitive tweets” (USA Today), “insensitive remarks” (New York Times), “tasteless tweets” (ABC News), or “mocking jokes” (AP and Boston Globe).

As we mentioned in the precent post, this case show how big a mistake can develop in episodes of severe crisis submitted to massive media coverage.

In this post we further develop this analysis, showing media reputation of this specific event and its impact in global AFLAC reputation.

We use again the analysis of diamonds of media reputation, as we did is several precedent posts, like for instance the comaprison between media perception of Haiti versus Japan earthquake, or media reputation of Bank of America associated to Wikileaks. Please refer to those post for the explanation of the methodology applied. Basically, the stronger the association with a given media reputation vector, the bigger the diamond is in the graphs.

As we are checkin the impact of an event expected to generate bad reputation, we concentrate the analysis an results showing media reputation associated with “Scandal” and with “Tragedy”.

In next figures we compare the media content profile of news about AFLAC with explicit mentions to the jokes, agains media perception of AFLAC with all news published in March 2011 in relation with the Japanese tsunami. We also introduce as term of comparison the media reputation of AFLAC during year 2010, for news published between August and November 2010.

Results clearly indicate that Gottfried jokes are perceived as shocking by the media, as it produces a substantial increase of relation with “Scandal” association, in comparison with 2010 and current news about AFLAC. Bad image is specially present concerning the vector components of scandalous, harm, mistake and embarrassing.

Concerning the vector “Tragedy”, it penalizes AFLAC specially concerning the components harm and horrible.

The news content analysis technique that we propose at MRI Universidad de Navarra captures the negative impact that this event produces in AFLAC.

How substantial is the negative image transmitted by media coverage about jokes by “AFLAC duck voice”? A way to answer to this question is to compare the profile of these news against other controversial recent events. We compare  AFLAC jokes reputation crisis versus the profile of news referring to Homer Simpson and some episodes with crude humor about nuclear accidents. We compare it also to South Park TV series, as considered transgressor.

Our resuts indicates that Gottfried’s jokes are perceived basically as disgusting as The Simpson episodes related to nuclear plant. AFLAC jokes are more associated to mistake component. In contrast, present time news about South Park animated series is currently weackly associated to “Scandal”. We observe also a similar behaviour trend concerning the reputation vector “Tragedy”.

A surprising but revealing term of comparison is Rebecca Black, one of these new kind of explosive Youtube hits. Official video counts with 78 millions visits at the beginning of April 2011. The special feature of this new singer is that she has received extremely negative reviews. Votes in Youtube show that 189,000 viewers like it, while somo other 1.5 million viewers dislike, almost 90% of negative votes.

Our results indicate that both news about Rebecca Black “Friday” clip and news about the jokes by Gilbert Gottfried receive basically the same profile in terms of bad reputation concerning “Scandal” and “Tragedy” components. Rebecca Black is viewed in a slighly worst image than AFLAC comedian.

All comparisons with other brands in the enterteinment industry with expected negative image show clearly that jokes aired through Twitter are judged really bad by newspapers.

How harmful will be this episode for the global media reputation of AFLAC? AFLAC executives took a bold decisions, firing almost immediately the comedian. In a reputation crisis, how to react concerning the source of the troubles, as well as the timing are always key decisions influencing the evolution of the crisis.

We check first to which extent the jokes scandal has contaminated other decisions taken by AFLAC.

In accordance with its strong presence in Japan, AFLAC was one of the first companies in the United States to commit donations for affected people. A press release was published by March 11, the day the earthquake occurred, reproduced here:

Aflac Pledges 100 Million Yen to Red Cross Disaster Relief for Japan
COLUMBUS, Ga., March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Aflac has pledged 100 million yen to the Red Cross to assist with their disaster relief efforts in Japan. Aflac is the largest insurer in Japan based on policies in force.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Japanese people during this very difficult time,” Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos said. “We stand ready to assist in the healing process and are pledging these funds to ensure that basic needs are cared for during this crisis.”
Aflac will work with the Red Cross to expedite this contribution.

In the press release announcing that “Aflac Severs Ties with Gilbert Gottfried”, they arlo made reference to past donation. This linkage could affecet negatively the reputation profile of news about support to victims of the disaster. We show now the media reputation of news about the donations made by AFLAC to the victims of the earthquake.

The answer, according to our results, is that media make a clear distinction between the two events and decisions, and news about donations are not associated to scanal, as news about the jokes are indeed. News about donations share basically the same profile that news about AFLAC and the tsunami.

We give a complement of the impact of donations on the media reputation of AFLAC by showing a couple of examples of positive brand vectors. News about donations strongly reinforce the media reputation of AFLAC in two dimensions cherised by this company: “Excellence” and “Commitment”. “How Do we Do Business: From the very beginning of our business, Aflac leaders have worked hard to build a culture of open communication, honesty, integrity and caring customer service. And from the days when three brothers founded Aflac, we’ve approached our shareholders with those same values.” (AFLAC Fact Sheet).

We observe that even of all three group of news depited in the graphs refer to Japan’s disaster, they portray different media reputation: news about AFLAC and the tsunami and about the jokes are poorly associated to “excellence”, while news about donations for victims are strongly associated to all components of “excellence”, like honesty, awareness or Corporate Social Responsibility.

We find a similar pattern regarding “Leadership, Commitment”. Low degree of association with news about the tsunami and jokes, but high when linked to the donations. Stronger association with components inspiring, leadership and awareness.

When AFLAC announced the cessation of relations with Gilbert Gottfried, it also annunced a casting call for the new voice of AFLAC Duck: “Aflac will immediately set plans in motion to conduct a nationwide casting call to find a new voice of the iconic Aflac Duck. It should be noted that Gilbert Gottfried is not the voice of the Aflac Duck in Japan” (AFLAC Press Release March 14, 2011). Was it a correct marketing and branding strategy? There were a clear risk of linkage of the cating call news to the jokes scandal, and that every news about the auditions generate new references to the awful jokes. This could clearly expand in time the negative impact of the jokes on AFLAC reputation.

We compare here the media reputation of news related to the casting in comparison with news about the jokes. Results show clearly that news about the casting are not contaminated at all by the jokes affaire in terms of association with “Scandal”. Franckly speaking, this is a big surprise for us, as our own percpetion was to find the opposite result, and our initial judgement was to consider the nationawide casting as a mistake in terms of branding strategy.

Results concerning “Excellence” confirm again that the casting news are not affected by the negative image generated by Gottfried’s jokes.

Has Gilbert Gottfried killed the Duck?

Immediate reaction to the scandal provoked by Twitter jokes was required by AFLAC staff. Not only because of the massive media impact produced, and not only because Japan is the main market for AFLAC in terms of revenues.

A decide reputational crisis management was needed because AFLAC Duck is apparently one of the main intangible assets of the company. The white duck is not only the conductor of all commercials run by AFLAC: it is part of AFLAC logo, as shown below. It is thus present in all official documents and references to the company.

The crisis generated by Gilbert Gottfried’s jokes could then become not only a short term reputational crisis. It could tarnish the brand perception of AFLAC Duck by the media consumers and all stakeholders.

According to AFLAC sources, “In 1990, Daniel P. Amos was named CEO of Aflac Incorporated. After several unsuccessful attempts to increase Aflac’s brand awareness, on January 1, 2000, Mr. Amos boldly introduced America to the Aflac Duck. A marketing sensation, the Aflac Duck is now a corporate icon holds a place on Madison Avenues Walk of Fame and is part of American pop culture” (AFLAC Corporate Overview).

We indenify now to which extent the current negative news are affecting negatively the media reputation of “AFLAC Duck”. We compare current (March 2011) news about AFLAC Duck against media profile of news about Gottfried jokes, and against media reputation of AFLAC during second half of year 2010.

Our results indicate that AFLAC Duck has not been affected by the jokes, in terms of association to “Scandal” media reputation vector. AFLAC Duck shares the same media recognition than the company news before the scandal of the jokes happened.

The analysis about the media reputation vector “Tragedy” produce the same results and conclusions: the Duck has not been affected by the neagtive image of the jokes.

We check finally one of the positive reputation vectors. We select “Excellent”, as already used to analize the other issues. Once again we find that even in the midst of the flow of negative news about the bad jokes of “the voice of AFLAC Duck”, media reputation of the white duck is resilient and unaffected in negative terms: the Duck is apparently one of AFLAC drivers of brand equity, as it reinforces the association of AFLAC to “excellence”, specially for to key components for this company: honesty and Corporate Social Responsibility.

All these final results tend to clearly state that the Withe Duck is indeed an intangible asset of extraordinary value for AFLAC, that has perfecly survived to the attack of the tasteful jokes by its voice almost since by its inception in the United States advertising strategy. This analysis is also according to us a nice example of the strengths and power of the techniques developped by Media, Reputation and Intangibles center, MRI Universidad de Navarra to assess media reputation of any kind of brands, and to evaluate the impact of events and crisis from very different nature.

Other Posts

Company Reputation: News Corp Scandal Media Coverage in US Newspapers

Company Reputation: How Harmful Is News of the World Scandal for News Corp Reputation?

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

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

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

Japan XVII. Haiti and Japan Earthquake Media Coverage During the First Month

Japan XVI AFLAC Media Reputation: Impact of Jokes About Tsunami in Japan

Japan XV. American Companies Most Affected by Earthquake, Tsunami or Nuclear Crisis in Japan, by Media Impact

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

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.

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

Posted on by • Posted in Countries, Country - Japan, Disasters, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, Event - Tsunami Japan, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Rep Issue -Media Impact Analysis • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 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).

Other posts

Japan XV. American Companies Most Affected by Earthquake, Tsunami or Nuclear Crisis in Japan, by Media Impact

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

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

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

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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

News Corp Scandal Media Coverage in US Newspapers

How Harmful Is News of the World Scandal for News Corp Reputation?

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

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

Posted on by • Posted in Companies, Corp - New York Times, Corp - Wall Street Journal, Countries, Country - Japan, Country - United States, Disasters, Event - Fukushima, Event - Tsunami Japan, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Political Leaders, Rep Issue - Media Bias, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue - Newspapers, Rep Issue - Storyline Analysis • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 10 Comments

We continue our analysis of the initial media storyline of Japan earthquake and tsunami, and the related Fukushima nuclear crisis. In a previous post we have shown how the Fukushima crisis is portrayed by media from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and India. National results are elaborated by the sum of the contributions of all local newspapers.

If an event receives a relevant and sustained media impact, content storyline analysis can also be performen for singular newspapers. For instance, in precedent research projects we have measured how top US newspapers by circulation were following Republican and Democrat candidates, and to which extent they presented bias in terms of total media coverage. As the current media attention to Japan disasters is global and massive, we can study the specific behaviour of any particular newspaper.

We have chosen in this blog to show the storyline profile of two leading and influential American newspapers: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. As these two newspapers are new content generators, they become content providers for other newspapers when cited by. As WJS is a business oriented journal, we expect to find a specific focus on the economic consequences of the earthquake and the tsunami concerning local and international companies, and this should be reflected in the storyline. Those effect are of main importance for Japan’s economy and business, but less relevant for the global economy.

But in contrast with all other big natural disasters, Tohoku earthquake captures media attention with a clear local interests interpellation, as the Fukushima nuclear crisis may seriously open the debate about the future of nuclear energy use. United States uses profusely nuclear power. According to Gallup, in year 2010, 62% of respondents were favorable to nuclear power use for generating electricity, and 33% were opposed. Approval rates are partisan: using 2009 data it appears that 71% Republicans approve nuclear energy, while the approval rate for Democrats drops to 52%. Approval rates right now are respectively 62% and 32%. As it could be expected, approval rating are falling substantially in the context of the Japanese nuclear crisis: 39% of all respondents feel a lot more concerned about a nuclear disaster occurring in the United States after events in Japan, and an additional 31% are a little more concerned.

As many people consider NYT more liberal than WSJ, or WSJ more conservative than NYT, we want to check using our approach to which extent we find a different storyline profile about Fukushima nuclear crisis between these two leading newspapers. We will compare their behaviour to the storyline resulting from all newspapers from United States in our sample.

The analysis of this post is based in the content analysis of more than 200 different articles published by NYT and some 1,300 by WSJ directly related to Japan earthquake. Even if the range of the sample is wide enough, caution is required concerning the interpretation of individual results. When the media impact of an specific storyline component of NYT or WSJ is bigger than 1.0 points, we consider that results are quite reliable, as reflect an important amount of prevalence in different news. For issues obtaining lower scores as they are less frequently in the news, individual results are not directly reliable. In this case we consider that the relevant information appears if all single storyline components pertaining to similar issues behave following a common trend.

First figure just refer to the extension given to the main events suffered by Japan. First reference is still the earthquake, specially present in WSJ news. Fukushima related news receive a similar amount of news.

The following figures refer all to the Fukushima storyline.

The first one of them refers to main global issues in relation with Fukushima. While global attention to Fukushima is similar in both newspapers, we find that NY Times insists more than WSJ concerning “radioactive”, “contamination” and somewhat also “meltdown”. If we compare both to average US newspapers, we find that is WSJ which is underscoring these issues. It follows a clear different pattern concerning media coverage to “radioactive” and “contamination”.

In the following figure we show to which extent the newspapers use the reference to past nuclear disasters as a piece of the present Fukushima crisis storyline. We find a clear differenciated pattern between both newspapers. In comparison to US media coverage average, Wall Street Journal underuse references to past nuclear accidents. The underuse ratio is higher concerning the most severe past nuclear accident (Chernobyl, Level 7 accident) than concerning references to Three Mile Island, which did not provoke direct human casualties. The opposite happens with New York Times coverage: it stresses the media references to past nuclear accidents, in ha higher extent than US newspapers. Similar results concerning references to past disasters from other nature. References to the A-bomb suffered by Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. References to BP oil spill disaster in Gulf of Mexico in the context of Japan disaster are marginal in US media and WSJ, by they play a certain role in the NYT storyline. Finally, the reference to the precedent big earthquake suffered by Japan, Kobe 1995 quake is reported in a similar way both by WSJ and NYT. In this case, the reference to past Japanese tragedy is unrelated with the nuclear debate.

There is a crucial choice that influences the whole profiling of the storyline: the basic labeling of the event. In the newxt figure we show the weight given by the newspapers to different wording of what is happening in Fukushima nuclear plant I Daiichi.

According to our results, the most used labeling is to refer to Fukushima as a “nuclear crisis”. This labeling takes 4.7 points of media impact in the storyline of news about the Japan disaster. In relative terms, this is also a preferred way to present the events by Wall Street Journal journalists. Other naming are “nuclear disaster”, by far less present, with 1.1 points of media impact. This is again a preferred option for WSJ. Third used option is “nuclear accident” (0.4 points), and is the chosen formula by NYT in relative terms to other media (in absolute terms, the main reference is to consider it as a “nuclear crisis”. Final used option is “nuclear emergency” (0.2 points), most widely used by WSJ. We can appreciate that the reference to an objective event, which is the explosion, is refelcted in the news in the same way by noth newspapers.

We echoed in a precedent post the controversial description by a top official from the European Union of Fukushima as an apocalyptic event. Our results show that only marginal media attention is given by US newspapers, and that NYT tends to use is in a higher proportion. Similar result concerning the use of “nightmare”.

Next figure refers to the appeareance of main local Japanese and international actors and authorities related with the crisis. Main reference for US media is Tokyo Electric Power, the company managing the Fukushima nuclear plant. We have splitted mentions to full name and those referring to it as TEPCO. WSJ shows references to the comapny in line with US average, and apparently prefers to use TEPCO instead of full name, in relative terms. This absence of divergent pattern is paradoxically an unexpected result. As WSJ is a business oriented newspaper, we should expect to find a special focus and media attention to Tokyo Electric Power concerning all different aspects when covering this nuclear crisis. This does not happen actually, and we will see later that this absence of interest on TEPCO is in sharp contrast with the media interest shown by WSJ in all other economic and business impact derived from the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

Concerning Japanese authorities, we find that WSJ and NYT insist more than US average when talking about them as a group (“Japanese Government”, “Japanese authorities”), but in a lower extent when referring to persons (Prime Minister Edano, Chief Cabinet Kan). Finally, the reference to the International Atimic Energy Agency is lower than average for NYT and specially for WSJ. The ratio Japanese Government/IAEA is 1.2 for average US media, 1.9 for NYT and 3.6 for WSJ. The way reference to local and international authorities is made is probably also a key factor in designing the storyline.

Other references

News Corp Scandal Media Coverage in US Newspapers

How Harmful Is News of the World Scandal for News Corp Reputation?

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)

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

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

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

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

Posted on by • 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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 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.

Other references

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

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

Posted on by • Posted in Companies, Country - Japan, Disasters, Earthquake, Event - Fukushima, Event - Tsunami Japan, Issue - Nuclear Crisis, Debate, Rep Issue - News Content Analysis, Rep Issue -Media Impact Analysis • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 9 Comments

Update March 27: the list with the American companies most affectd by the Japanese disaster and the nuclear crisis has been published in a new post.

This blog is mainly oriented to provide empirical results concerning the impact of Wikileaks in terms of media reputation. In precedent posts we showed which where the companies most exposed to Wikileaks crisis in terms of media impact in America and Europe.

Now we use a similar technique to show to the readers of this post which are the companies most affected by the Japanese disaster. This first post in this business oriented series refers to companies from Europe. Companies monitored are those included in Europe Stoxx 600 Index. Future posts will refer to American and Asian companies.

Our European Companies Media Impact about Japan disaster is calculated with news worldwide referring to Japan earthquake or Fukushima nuclear crisis up to March 20 2011. A media impact value 1.0 means that this company has received an amount of news linked to Japan disaster in an equal number that the average 600 companies listed in the Stoxx 600 Index.

Some companies are most affected by the tsunami, and others by the nuclear crisis and its implications. We show in column 4 and 5 in the table if media coverage refers mostly to one event or the other. Three stars indicate that in comparison to average, this company is strongly associated to one of the events. Two stars also reflect a high bias to one of the events, but lower than the first case.

According to our results, the company from Europe most afected, at least in terms of media coverage is Royal Dutch-Shell, with 43.2 points of media value. This means that Royal Dutch has appeared in the media in news related to Japanese disasters 43 times more than the average of all companies checked. Second company in the list is French EDF (34.3 points), followed by Lufthansa (34.1 points).

First companies in the list are mailny affected by the nuclear crisis and operate in the energy industry. As the crisis is still open, their media exposure will continue to grow. We find many financial and insurance companies between position 5 and 20. They are all oriented to earthquake and tsunami news.

Other references

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