Political and cultural contrasts in reporting about disasters: comparing United States and Chinese newspaper portrayals of bridge collapses

Abstract

This paper compares the news coverage of bridge collapses in the United States and China to reveal how the cultural, political, and social differences of these two countries influence the ways in which disasters are represented to the public. By applying qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study examines the variations in news articles in different newspapers on bridge collapses. The results of this study indicate that news articles from Chinese newspapers, The People's Daily and The Shanghai Daily, paid more attention to event description and consequences. News accounts from The Houston Chronicle showed similar patterns as their counterparts in China, but news articles from The New York Times highlighted bridge safety and the responsibility of either the government or specific members of the public in their reports. Chinese reporting may result in more effective risk communication and greater personal awareness of hazards as readers in each country are similarly embedded in discursive contexts that define their roles as consumers of news and as risk managers or decision makers.

Best practice approaches for reporting disasters

“…In the pre-disaster planning stage, local journalists and news media have advantageous knowledge of the history of disasters in the area and potential insights into the geographical, social and cultural factors that will influence how the disaster unfolds (Andrews and Caren, 2010;He and Tiefenbacher, 2008).…”

“…Mileti (1975: 49) Do understand the cultural, social, political and economic settings that inform and characterise the disaster you are reporting? He and Tiefenbacher (2008) Does your newsroom have guidelines for reporting disasters? Kisang (2014) Are you familiar with those guidelines and do they cover ethical issues?…”

Assessing the Extent to Which the UK’s National Risk Register Supports Local Risk Management

“…Areas which recurrently receive attention will inevitably be better understood by actors, particularly if these risk are geographically relevant to the end user, as well as set within the local political and cultural contexts [46]. For example, interviewees were able to discuss a number of high profile risks attributed to have greatest personal, business, and community impact within the East of England, including flooding and drought scenarios and issues with renewable and non-renewable energy creation and use.…”

Technology and journalism: ‘Dissolving’ social media content into disaster reporting on three Chinese disasters

“…In disaster reporting, apart from the limited access to sources and the time allowed to collect information, source selection is also affected by a number of underlying social and institutional factors. Social contextual factors such as cultural, political, and social traits and the national interests of different countries are often used to explain the differences in the media representation of disasters (He and Tiefenbacher, 2008; Jha and Izard, 2005). For example, national interests and cultures are often used to explain the variations in sourcing patterns (Bennett and Daniel, 2002; Lancaster, 2008; Lee and Kim, 2008).…”

“…However, this does not mean that those media which have some autonomy can perform well. In He and Tiefenbacher's study (2008), to take an example, the coverage of a bridge collapse in Guangdong by the PD (a newspaper from the highest administrative level) and the Shanghai Daily (a newspaper from outside of the town) were found to be relying on feeds of government information and focusing on on-scene descriptions and the consequences of the collapse, without raising questions about accountability and pre-disaster warnings. In their study, the control of the media is still evident in the coverage, although both newspapers were relatively free to report on the disaster in theory.…”