News Analysis of the Fukushima Accident: Lack of Information Disclosure, Radiation Fears and Accountability Issues

Crisis Communication and the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster:

“…One of the strongest arguments forwarded by the Japanese government and TEPCO in support of their decision to withhold information regarding the events leading up to the crisis from the public, which went against the principles of SCCT, is that the people did not need to know since they would have been unable to manage the situation and would have stirred up panic. 100 This step of the government bears traces of the Attribution theory, which explains how the interaction between certain variables in SCCT creates a practical framework for the conceptualization of crisis management. 101 From the government's standpoint, they did nothing wrong in the process, but the relationship between crises and crisis response strategies was obstructed as a result.…”

Post-Fukushima discourse in the US press: Quantified knowledge, the technical object, and a panicked public

“…Scholars addressing information and knowledge production related to Fukushima have often avoided media content in favor of studying the practices and discourses of individual institutions, industries, citizen groups, social movements, or governments (Abe, 2013; Visschers and Wallquist, 2013; Weston, 2013). Scholars drawing on content analysis methods to analyze Fukushima discourse have compared media treatment of nuclear power across time (Schmidt et al, 2013) or place (Katchanovski, 2012); other studies have compared media type (Friedman, 2011; Yamamura, 2012) or focused on a small number of overarching discursive frames (Lazic, 2013; Lazic and Kaigo, 2013). This article is unique in its focus on the emergence of science- and knowledge-related media frames, the implications of this process for public engagement in nuclear energy policy, and its comparative approach.…”

Media coverage and government policy of nuclear power in the People's Republic of China

“…Economic and environmental benefits and risks were most frequently presented among pro-and anti-nuclear arguments, while informational text mainly focused on regulatory processes and financing (Culley et al, 2010). Another scholar, Lazic (2013), analyzed the content of news articles about the Fukushima accident in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and USA Today to explore how U.S. newspapers explained this accident to the public. The results indicate that these articles focused most heavily on conflict, responsibility, and economic interest (Lazic, 2013).…”

“…Another scholar, Lazic (2013), analyzed the content of news articles about the Fukushima accident in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and USA Today to explore how U.S. newspapers explained this accident to the public. The results indicate that these articles focused most heavily on conflict, responsibility, and economic interest (Lazic, 2013). Lastly, Perko et al (2012) conducted a content analysis of over 200 articles published in spoken and printed media in Slovenia and other countries to examine the media coverage of a nuclear event in Slovenia.…”