Research of the Way of Communicating Information to the Mass Media by Comparison with the Media Coverage about Nuclear Accidents

Abstract

Media coverage plays an important role in delivering information to the public in a rapid and easy-to-understand manner in terms of the subjects of nuclear energy. The mass media has so far covered nuclear accidents that occurred in nuclear facilities. The media coverage usually gains the attention of the public through the news media, such as TV and newspapers. In this study, three main cases of nuclear accidents were quantitatively examined by using the database of a newspaper. In addition, various comments of journalists whom the author interviewed were added for the evaluation of the three cases. As a result, it was revealed that the amount of media reporting commonly reached a maximum just after the nuclear accidents occurred. It became also clear that the smoothness of the information flow from the nuclear industry to the mass media affected the trend of the media coverage from the viewpoints of the duration and number of news reports. Most of the journalists considered that it was significant for the nuclear industry to strengthen the initial reaction on the occasion of nuclear accidents. The nuclear industry should understand the characteristics that are typical of the media coverage on nuclear accidents in the future.