Uchida Yukiko, Kanagawa Chie, Takenishi Ako, Harada Akira, Okawa Kiyotake, Yabuno Hiromi
Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto City, Kyoto, Japan.
Faculty of Management, Otemon Gakukun University, Ibaraki City, Osaka, Japan.
PLoS One. 2015 May 18;10(5):e0125966. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125966. eCollection 2015.
The Great East Japan Earthquake was a tragic event requiring critical media involvement. Since the media played an important role in conveying factual information, journalists expressed feeling that it was difficult to guarantee the objectivity of their coverage. As media coverage constructs a socio-culturally shared reality among its audience, an examination of the objectivity and emotionality of the contents of the news coverage is needed. In Study 1, we conducted an exploratory content analysis of TV and newspaper coverage from the six month period following the March 11, 2011 disaster, finding that the news media generally reported neutral and objective factual information about the event, with emotionality shown only in the commentary. In order to examine how media coverage was constructed and evaluated by journalists, in Study 2 we conducted an online survey of 115 journalists working for mass media organizations. We found that that the journalists' orientations tended to be more objective than emotional, which is consistent with the findings of Study 1. However, their evaluations of the objectivity of the published articles were low, especially for the coverage of the nuclear power plant accident, which was an accident of an unprecedented nature. The negative emotions that journalists experienced during their investigations negatively affected subsequent evaluations of the objectivity of their reporting.
东日本大地震是一场需要媒体深度参与的悲剧事件。由于媒体在传达事实信息方面发挥了重要作用,记者们表示难以保证报道的客观性。鉴于媒体报道在其受众中构建了一种社会文化共享的现实,因此需要审视新闻报道内容的客观性和情感性。在研究1中,我们对2011年3月11日灾难发生后的六个月内电视和报纸的报道进行了探索性内容分析,发现新闻媒体总体上报道了关于该事件的中立和客观的事实信息,情感性仅体现在评论中。为了研究媒体报道是如何被记者构建和评估的,在研究2中,我们对为大众媒体机构工作的115名记者进行了在线调查。我们发现记者的倾向往往更客观而非情绪化,这与研究1的结果一致。然而,他们对已发表文章客观性的评价较低,尤其是对于核电站事故的报道,这是一场性质前所未有的事故。记者在调查过程中所经历的负面情绪对其后续报道客观性的评价产生了负面影响。