Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

How was information about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster presented and transmitted in traditional and new media? How did these two major families interact in the post-Fukushima media dynamic? We reviewed 30 scientific publications or presentations dealing with mass media behaviour and its effects in the case of the March 2011 Fukushima accident. Data from Japan and also from other world regions were considered. Our structured review considered the framing and interpretation found in the media and the sources cited. A brief online survey also was conducted to complete our understanding of how European institutions applied social media in this crisis. Traditional media were found to provide context including frequent comparisons with the Chernobyl accident, however the expert technical vocabulary of radiation appeared incompletely translated. The number and range of cited sources grew in the days following the accident. Institutions used social media mainly as an expedient when traditional websites crashed under the weight of consultation. In contrast, a form of 'citizen journalism' emerged when social networks sped, decentralised and diversified information provision while offering platforms for direct citizen participation, expression and feedback. This dynamic offers opportunities for moving closer to a citizen-centred ideal of risk communication.

Brian Williams, an American journalist who had for ten years served as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News was recently suspended for six months for "misrepresent[ing]" events which he claimed occurred during his coverage of the Iraq War in 2003. While many have questioned why Williams, a well-known and widely respected broadcast journalist, would have fabricated the degree of risk he faced in his war coverage, few have considered that he might have unwittingly, rather than deliberately, misrepresented events in the past. Autobiographical memory, however, is highly susceptible to a variety of influences which can create false memories. While researchers have, for obvious reasons, created benign memories, cases exist in which individuals have been tried for crimes which in retrospect seem ludicrous. I argue that, whatever the reason for Brian Williams’ exaggeration of the level of threat which he faced in Iraq in 2003, the implications of such exaggerations for communication research are sobering.