The Reporting Of News In Disaster: A Comparative Study Of Japanese And American Communities
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Date
1993
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
Description
This work reports on the first ever effort by researchers from tfie
United States and Japan to undertake a collaborative social science
study in the disaster area. The agreed upon focus was the
operation of local mass communication systems during the emergency
time periods of disasters in both societies. Using a mostly
common, although not identical research design, the Americans
studied local reporting of a major hurricane (Hurricane Alicia in
the Houston, Texas metropolitan area in 1983) and a major sudden
flood (around Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1984). The Japanese in turn
researched the local reporting of two similar disasters (the floods
and landslides around Nagasaki in 1982 and the earthquake-tsunami
disaster in Noshiro City in northern Japan in 1983). The overall
objective of the collaborative work was to ascertain the
similarities and differences in disaster news gathering and
reporting at the local community level in the two societies.
Keywords
Japanese Communities, American Communities, Mass Communication System