Reporting Disasters: A Case Study on the Reportage of the Tohoku and Sendong Disasters in Inquirer.net, JapanTimes.co.jp and NYTimes.com
Reporting Disasters: A Case Study on the Reportage of the Tohoku and Sendong Disasters in Inquirer.net, JapanTimes.co.jp and NYTimes.com
ABSTRACT
This undergraduate thesis examines how three news sites reported on the Tohoku and Sendong disasters which both happened in 2011. The Tohoku disaster of March 2011 involved a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Northeastern coast of Japan and caused tsunami waves which in turn, damaged reactors in a nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture. The Sendong disaster hit Northern Mindanao, a Southern island in the Philippines, on December 2011 causing flash floods which drowned thousands and left families homeless.
This study explores how Inquirer.net, JapanTimes.co.jp and NYTimes.com covered these disasters in terms of frames such as story length, themes, slant, information sources and photo usage. It compares the coverage of these three news websites in terms of these aspects and pinpoints observations as well as possible ethical misjudgments.
Longakit, G.G. (2012) Reporting Disasters: A Case Study on the Reportage of the Tohoku and Sendong Disasters in Inquirer.net, JapanTimes.co.jp and NYTimes.com, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.