1.Different Views, Different News: The Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami, the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor, and How the Worlds Media Reported Them By Eric Johnston Staff Writer The Japan Times, Osaka office, Editorial Dept., News Division

2. The Foreign Media and Japan: The Situation on March 10th, 2011 3. How Many Foreign Media in Japan? 551 journalists 31 countries 179 media organs according to Foreign Press Center Japan 4. Main Media in Japan pre-3.11 201131 Country No. of Media Organs No. of Media Personnel U.S. 40 220 U.K. 17 89 Chinaex. Hong Kong 15 49 South Korea 18 34 France 12 32 Germany 15 30 Hong Kong 5 11 Taiwan 8 11 Russia 5 8 5. What were these meeting reporting prior to 3.11? Six types of stories are prevalent; (1) Electronic goods; (2) Animation; (3) Manga; (4) Finance; (5) Autos; (6) Economic. Stories on politics and general society. In addition to Japan, there are foreign correspondents who have to cover South Korea, Taiwan, and China. The high yen and the fact that Japans presence internationally is greatly reduced means that, for foreign media, Japan is too expensive and not important. Many foreign media bureaus in Japan have already pulled out. 6. And then, the quake and tsunami hit. Suddenly, Japan was a major international news story. 7. March 1115th: The First Overseas Media Reports Were often based on the activities of the 551 foreign correspondents in Japan. These activities included: (1) Transmitting English translations of information based on NHK or Kyodo reports; and (2) On-the-spot reports from correspondents in Tokyo who managed to get to the damaged areas quickly. First correspondents were in affected areas of Tohoku within four hours of quake striking at 2:46 p.m. on March 11th. 8. March 1115th: The First Overseas Media Reports On March 12, overseas media began arriving in Japan. Overseas readers and TV viewers began to see or read more reports from famous or respected journalists rather than from local correspondents. These famous/respected journalists had lots of experience. But unlike local correspondents, they did not understand Japanese language or culture. Overseas TV commentators then introduced lots of speculative experts, based on information they were getting from famous/respected reporters on the ground. 9. Common Traits of Overseas Media Reporting On-Location in Tohoku 10. Reporters cooperated with each other. Groups of friends from different media traveled around the quake/tsunami-damaged areas together. The Japanese media had to cover both the damaged areas and the central government announcements. The foreign media often concentrated on what was happening on the ground in Tohoku. In the disaster areas, Japanese media participated in official press conferences. But even foreign reporters who understood Japanese did not usually attend because : 11. (1) The small number of foreign media reporters per media organization decided it was more important to concentrate on covering people who had been affected by the disaster. They did not have the manpower to cover the briefings as well; and (2) Japans press club system meant neither the Japanese government nor the Japanese mass media had a sufficient system to provide timely official information to foreign media within the disaster areas. The attitude of both was, ``If foreign reporters have questions, they can find the appropriate spokesperson themselves. . .`` 12. Fukushima Reactor: The First Reports 13. March 12th: CNN [``Meltdown May Be Underway] ``We see the possibility of a meltdown, said Toshihiro Bannai, of The Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in a telephone interview. 14. March 12th Reuters [Explosion , Radiation Leaks from Japans Quake-Hit Nuclear Plant] Radiation leaked from Japans earthquake crippled nuclear plant on Saturday after a blast blew the roof off, and authorities prepared to distribute iodine. 15. March 13th, Agence-France Presse [US Experts: `Chernobyl-like Crisis For Japan] US experts warned Saturday that pumping sea water to cool a quake- hit Japanese nuclear reactor was an ``act of desperation that may foreshadow a Chernoybl-like 16. March 13th, Associated Press (AP) [Japan Frantic to Avert Multiple Nuclear Meldowns. New Explosion Rocks Nuclear Plant] 17. CNN, Reuters, AFP, and APs reports are heavily used by overseas media that do not have the ability to send their own reporters to cover a story. The facts introduced, and the tone, in the first reports of the wire services and major international broadcasters heavily influences how other media, especially newspapers, local TV and radio, and, of course, social media, continue to cover the story. . 18. The four media examples I just used contained , in their stories and headlines: (1) A statement from a Japanese government official; about a meltdown possibility; (2) A report that Japanese authorities are about to distribute iodine; (3) An American expert warning of Chernobyl-like disaster; and (4) A sentence saying the Japanese government is starting to panic. 19. Therefore, the resulting image abroad was. . . ``A Chernobyl-like disaster is occurring in Japan, with the reactors melting down, and multi explosions are sending dangerous levels of radiation into the air. The Japanese government is panicking and the danger of radiation sickness is now very real. 20. Japan: Caught in the Center of an Overseas Media Typhoon 21. March 16th: The Sun (British tabloid) ``Tokyo a ghost town.. No gas, no water, no food. People starting to panic. Le Figaro (French newspaper) ``Fukushima workers trying to save the plant are nuclear kamikaze who have been sacrificed. The Telegraph (UK newspaper) Headline: ``Just 48 hours to avoid another Chernobyl. CNN: ``There is a mass exodus from 22. Japan: Caught in the Center of an Overseas Media Typhoon March 17th The Daily Mail (UK newspaper): ``UN predicts nuclear plume to reach U.S. by Friday CBC News: ``UK, US, South Korea, Australia, Germany evacuating citizens from Japan due to Fukushima. Der Spiegel (Germany): ``Radioactive cloud drifting towards Tokyo. 23. The New York Times U.S. Calls Radiation Extremely High; Sees Japan Nuclear Crisis 24. The Telegraph Japan nuclear plant: Just 48 hours to avoid 'another Chernobyl' Japan has 48 hours to bring its rapidly escalating nuclear crisis under control before it faces a catastrophe worse than Chernobyl, it was claimed last night. 25. Sta 26. And then, there was ``Faux News 27. PANIC!!!! France, U.S., Great Britain, Germany and other countries advise their citizens to either avoid the Fukushima area, consider leaving Tokyo, or to leave Tokyo altogether. Austria, Finnish ambassadors move to Kansai region. Many embassies order all non-essential staff to return to their home countries. Many Tokyo-based foreign firms send employees to Kansai or overseas. Tokyo and Tohoku-based foreigners leave Japan in huge numbers. 28. HOW MANY FOREIGNERS LEFT JAPAN? About 400,000 No. 1 Shimbun (5 2009 2011 31241 Chinese 1,312,897 170,347 13 Koreans 2,002,695 92,668 5% U.S. non-military 674,165 34,115 5% Taiwanese 20,853 Filippino 257,036 18,375 7% Thai 201,271 12,164 6% Australian 206,728 10,512 5% UK 174,677 11,993 7% Indian 58,160 9,015 16% French 131,100 7,744 6% Canadian 150,048 6,853 5% German 102,831 5,949 6% 29. Japan-Based Foreigners Fight Back Against Excessive Foreign Media Reports 30. After about a week or so foreign media reports about the quake, some Tokyo-based foreigners, angry at the foreign media reporting and how its scaring their friends and relatives in their home countries, begin criticizing the foreign media. Their actions include: 31. 1) Creating a ``Wall of Shame, a list of what they say are the worst examples of foreign meeting reporting on Japan. Readers and TV viewers are asked to send in reports they read or saw that they felt were mistaken, biased, excessive or simply ill-informed. Reports are judged on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being reports that were unintentionally bad and based on information that seemed legitimate at the time, to 10 being reports that encourage hysterical fear-mongering. By early April, there are nearly 80 entries, which include media from the U.S., The UK, France, Canada, Germany, and Belgium. 32. http://www.jpquake.info/ Journalist Wall of Shame 33. Backlash: Japans response to the foreign media coverage 34. Friday, April 8th, Japanese government asks foreign media to ``objectively cover the crisis at Fukushima power,. Complains some reports by foreign media are ``excessive. Foreign Ministry angry at New York Times, European media reports TEPCO hired homeless people and yakuza to work in Fukushima.. These stories are basically true, confirmed by independent sources. Ministry for Internal Affairs, the National Policy Agency, and the Ministry for International Trade and Industry attempt to crack down on Japanese bloggers who posted ``malicious rumors about Fukushima reactor. Government pressures service providers to remove the names of the companies that built Fukushima reactors. Bloggers and journalists warn Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech are being threatened. Mainstream Japanese media is silent. 35. The Foreign Media Responds to Its Critics 36. 1) Journalists who know Japan and live, or have lived, here ask which is better: a media that warns too much of possible dangers, or a media doesnt warn you enough. 37. They point out that the Japanese media has a long history of not being aggressive when it comes to challenging the government and of simply repeating what government officials say rather than being skeptical and getting differing views. 38. ``Japans media serves the government and the nuclear power industry, not the people. So, they ask, is it really a good idea to simply trust what the Japanese media and government are saying? 39. Other foreign journalists say that, given: (1) The scale of the Disaster, (2) Deadline constraints, (3) The fact that Japan is one of the Worlds Most Expensive Countries; (4) Limited Time and Financial Resources Available to Fact Check; and (5) Language/Cultural Issues. . . ``To a large extent, mistaken reporting cannot be helped. 40. Finally, there is the difficulty of understanding nuclear power itself. Few journalists have a lot of knowledge about nuclear power and do not have the time to study it in depth. Contradictory information about nuclear power and how safe it is. Experts themselves dont have the kind of clear answers journalists often need, and readers and viewers often want. 41. From April 2011 Onwards: Foreign Media Moves from Panic to Concern 42. By early April: 1) A growing sense that, while serious, the Fukushima reactor problem is a long-term problem; 2) Realization a dramatic Chernobyl-like explosion wont happen; 3) Events elsewhere (Arab Spring) have became main international media stories; 4) Which means that most foreign reporters left in Japan by mid-April are the 551 Japan- based correspondents. 43. EVEN AS MANY FOREIGN MEDIA ARE PACKING UP, THOUGH, FOREIGN AND JAPANESE MEDIA, AND PUBLIC DISTRUST OF JAPANESE GOVERNMENT AND TEPCO IS GROWING STRONGER 44. ``Where is Everybody Japanese government briefing for foreign journalists on April 25th does not draw a single reporter. 110 425 . http://takedanet.com/2011/04/post_3a50.html 45. That same day, April 25th, FOX News airs a comment by physicist Michio Kaku, who compares the way TEPCO and the Japanese government are running things to something out of ``The Simpsons cartoon series. FOX NEWS 46. By May, foreign media are asking a number of questions the Japanese media is starting to address: 47. What Are The Long-Term Radiation Effects? American media like Associated Press as well as The New York Times face criticism from U.S. doctors, nuclear scientists, and anti-nuclear activists for interviewing mostly those who say there is little danger from the Fukushima plant. Many people play ``numbers games, insisting that because Professor W or Dr. X or this or that agency, institute, or organization says that Y number of milliseiverts over Z number of years, the long-term effects are/are not a problem.. This causes great debateand confusion. Foreign media, especially in the UK, and Europe, as well as U.S. media outlets with a progressive agenda, start to quote a 2005 study by 3,000 doctors and radiation experts the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which notes no dose of radiation is safe, however small, including background radiation; exposure is cumulative and adds to an individual's risk of developing cancer. 48. How Is Japan Going To Pay For Reconstruction? 2) Growing concern Japan will be unable to keep a number of international financial aid promises. Japanese officials, at a Harvard University seminar in April 2011 assure audience Japan will meet its international commitments. 3) But U.S defense experts now wonder if Japan will refuse to pay for 60 percent of the costs for relocating the Marines on Okinawa to Guam, Others wonder if it will meet a host of financial commitments made at various multilateral meetings like the G-8 and G-20. 4) True Cost of Reconstruction? 5) 20 trillion yen? 6) 30 trillion yen? 7) 50 trillion yen? Nobody seems to know. 49. How long will Japan Have to Conserve Power? With the Fukushima plant now gone, Tokyo faced up to a 15 million kilowatt shortage of electricity in the summer 2011. Conservation measures prevented this, but last years effort could be the beginning of a conservation effort that lasts years, maybe decades, before there is a safe, stable, and sufficient amount of electricity available from new power plants that will have to be built to replace Fukushima. Will Japan have to drastically cut its energy use for years and years to come? What will this mean for the economy and the but general quality of life? 50. Whats The Future of Nuclear Power in Japan? Related that, a subset of questions: 1) Will Japan turn back on its other reactors shut down for ``stress tests? 1) Will the nuclear power lobby successfully preserve its power or will the anti-nuclear power forces in local governments like Osaka as well as the renewable energy lobby win the day? 51. Cause and Effect 52. Causes of ``biased coverage: The Foreign Media View (1) Japans Information Dispersal System: Japans press club system, whereby only select newspapers, wire services, and television are allowed to attend official press conferences and given information in a timely manner has created a closed system of information sharing on the part of the Japanese government. Even South Korea and China complained the only way they were learning about what Japan was doing after 3/11 was through the media there were apparently no official briefings by Japans Foreign Ministry for either country during the first few days after the earthquake. 53. (2) The Galapagos Island Mentality: In the eyes of many overseas, Japan is becoming a ``Galapagos Island. Used to refer to technology developed by Japan and only popular there. Now sometimes used to refer to the Japanese themselves, because Japanese are becoming ever-more isolated from what the rest of the world is thinking and doing. The result: fewer Japanese in positions of authority who are familiar with how the international media works, and how to respond to international media. (For example, saying ``there is nothing to worry about time after time may be the way things are done in Japan, 54. And How do the Japanese Media See Foreign Media Coverage? (1) Foreign media dont really understand Japan or the Japanese people, or the way Japan works. So even when they do an honest job, its impossible to avoid mistakes or biased reporting. (2) The British tabloids, some American TV stations, dont like Japanese people, so its easy for them to be sensational. (3) Unlike the Japanese media, which carefully researched the ``facts about radiation and was interested in maintaining calm, the foreign media had a commercial interest in not reporting the facts. (4) Japanese media were more careful about interviewing nuclear experts than foreign media, who often just ran anti-nuclear ``propaganda. 55. Causes of ``biased Overseas Media Reporting some Japanese views (5) Foreign reporters on the ground did a good job. It was the pundits and others who never came to Japan but engaged in speculation that caused people to panic (this is a view many foreigners and foreign journalists in Japan would share). (6) However some foreign reporters, and long-term Japan resident correspondents who read Japanese, also followed Japanese bloggers and tabloid media reports that were also biased, mistaken, and sensationalist, often on purpose. 56. MY OWN VIEW 57. 1. The unprecedented scale of the disaster made it extremely hard for all media to cover it as effectively as they would have liked. Therefore, thoroughly accurate ``factual reporting was impossible. 58. II. Relatively few foreign correspondents familiar with Japan in-country when the earthquake happened meant few journalists or commentators abroad who could explain what was happening, call contacts in Japan, and why Japan was behaving in the manner it was. 59. III. No one agreed-upon view regarding nuclear power safety, or how much radiation is dangerous, meant Fukushima reactor could not be covered ``objectively. Reporters and media either basically thought nuclear power was dangerous or not, and reported based on that belief. Clearly, many foreign media were far more skeptical BEFORE the accident about safety of nuclear power than many in Japan. 60. IV. Tokyo Was Affected As the center of Japan, and home to a quarter of the countrys population and virtually all foreign journalists, it was a ``national story because it was happening right in front of the media. Would the reaction of the foreign media (or even the Japanese media) been as dramatic had the quake and tsunami occurred far from Tokyo, off of Kyushu, Hokkaido, or Fukui and Fukuoka, Sapporo, or even Kansai been in danger of radiation? No, it would have been a ``local story. 61. V. The Power of Images Footage of dramatic explosions at the Fukushima reactor played over and over again on TV and on Youtube. If a picture was worth a thousand words in a government statement of reassurance, loop footage of the explosions, and then of helicopters dropping seawater on the smoking reactors completely shot the credibility of anybody in Japan who was saying ``Dont worry. 62. FOREIGN MEDIA REPORTING IN MARCH-APRIL 2011 OFTEN GOT THE ``FACTS WRONG. BUT THEY WERE FAR CLOSER TO THE ``TRUTH OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING THAN MANY JAPANESE MEDIA. 63. And finally. . .Social Media The quake and tsunami demonstrated, as never before, the power of Social Media to provide critical information, let the outside world know what was happening, bypass traditional mainstream media outlets, and immediately challenge both media and government reports on what was really happening. Foreign journalists often trusted Japanese Social Media sources in the disaster zone, and used their comments to challenge official statements. Mainstream Japanese media was far more interested in traditional use of official sources and reporting methods, and thus did not, in the immediate aftermath, provide a counter-narrative to the official one. 64. Thanks for Listening! Now I want to hear your opinions and questions.