Crews Search for Missing in Japan's 7.2 Quake

Reviewed by Takahiro MIYAO

Article:
Crews Search for Missing in Japan's 7.2 Quake
Associated Press (6/15/2008)
http://ap.google.com/article/
ALeqM5g5IgwzKsStVs5sFHkA5uIawpldqAD91AAI7G0

References:
Japan Nuclear Facilities Working Normally After Quake
Reuters (6/14):
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKT3752020080614
Fujitsu to Restart Quake-Hit Japan Chip Plant in 2-3 Days
Reuters (6/15):
http://uk.reuters.com/article/
rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUKT4235620080615

Comments:

It is widely reported that Saturday's 7.2-magnitude quake in the Tohoku region left at least nine people dead and at least a dozen missing with more than two hundred people injured. Search teams are now frantically working to find and save those who are still missing, mostly due to landslides in the hardest-hit region, as described in the AP news article linked above. This article also points out that the quake affected a nuclear power plant in the Fukushima, where some radioactive water leaked within the nuclear facility, but a government official said "there was no leakage outside the plant."

That kind of information is quite important, because there have been some foreign newspaper reports with the headline "Small Radioactive Water Leak After Japan Quake," which by itself could possibly be misinformation or even disinformation. In this regard, Reuters' article "Japan Nuclear Facilities Working Normally After Quake" is quite helpful in informing the reader of what is really going on in that region. Similarly, newspaper articles entitled "Quake Hits Car, Electronics Factories in Northern Japan" could be misleading without being followed up by a report such as another Reuters piece "Fujitsu to Restart Quake-Hit Japan Chip Plant in 2-3 Days," linked above.

It is interesting to find the difference between media sensationalism serving commercial interests vs. true journalism informing the general public, especially at critical times like devastating earthquakes. For this reason, it is quite important to have more comprehensive information services to be offered by public offices, especially local governments, as well as more active participation of "citizen reporters" sharing their first-hand information on the Internet, especially for the sake of those affected by the disaster at hand, rather than waiting to be informed, sometimes misinformed, by the mass media, which may not be well prepared to report on unexpected happenings like a big earthquake.

Acknowledgment:
This review is adopted from the following blog (with its Japanese translation):
http://glocom.blog59.fc2.com/blog-date-20080616.html