US News Coverage Focused More on Bin Laden than Japan Earthquake, Libya Uprising, Deadly Tornadoes a

US News Coverage Focused More on Bin Laden than Japan Earthquake, Libya Uprising, Deadly Tornadoes and Other Major Events

www.marketwatch.com

NEW YORK, Jul 07, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Analysis of U.S.-based media coverage of major 2011 news events using the nexis.com(R) news and business information service from LexisNexis(R) provides insight into the type of news press focuses on and the exposure those news events receive. Specifically, media published or aired 23 percent more news articles about the military operation against Osama bin Laden in the two weeks following his death than news articles covering the Japanese earthquake in the two weeks following its occurrence in March. Further, U.S. coverage of bin Laden's death was mo

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.technologyreview.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Japan declares 'nuclear emergency' after quake

To the fine members of ATS, it is well known how much the Main Stream Media (MSM) is manipulated and directed, so this should come as no surprise.

The very fact that this is acknowledged in the linked and quoted news article shows how confident those who lurk behind the scenes have become. In today's information age, it is as simple as a few clicks of a mouse and reams of data area available to sift through for us lowly plebes

The story in the additional news link is from February, but it discusses how certain words will disrupt the blogosphere in the same way that earthquakes disrupt the crust of the earth.

Some being exogenous (originating outside the blogosphere) and others being endogenous (originating within the blogosphere).

I mentioned this news article in a post in the "related threads" discussion and asked for a specific member to comment on the post in light of his RL experiences. He replied back to me that this topic was thread-worthy in it's own right and that a new thread should be posted rather than have the discussion lost or diluted as a footnote within a larger thread.

Upon further reflection, I find myself agreeing with that sentiment. Not that the Japan declares "nuclear emergency" after quake thread is unimportant, it's sheer size may be intimidating to some, but this topic (media manipulation) is separate and distinct.

Taken together these two articles represent a more complete picture of how public discussion is being driven by those who wish certain topics brought to the fore while others are allowed (or purposely driven) to fall below the awareness of the average person.

Thank heavens, for the non-average members of ATS.



www.marketwatch.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I read about networks and print media complaining about having to fill in the gap with the Weiner "scandal" dying down. They have since focus on the Casey case and found a new story to overkill. My question is with all of the events happening in the world now relating to political, environmental and economical matter, why don't they fill in those gaps with stories with substance? The MSM is a joke and has been one for quite a number of years now.

The media is run by "conservative" billionaire media tycoons so what can people expect? I was particulary aggrivated by the underwhelming preparedness of the world's nuclear watchdog IAEC(International Atomic Energy Commission) in response to the japanesse nuclear incidents following the devastating earthquakes.

There were so many "mistakes" in the planning and handling of the reactors, especially the fact they were located near the sea and near known earthquake zones, not enough diesel generators, spent rods located within the facility instead of offsite, etc. No one can be sure about anything, but TEPCO(the main private electric company) seemed utterly confused and below par in performance.

The japanesse government went into overdrive downplaying everything while the american and european media was blackmailing ghaddafi to give up and let the muslim brotherhood(suspected ties to alqueda) take over without a fight. Indeed whatever suits the capitalist world dictatorship is "more important" news than outlinning the flaws of "yes sir" capitalism. The BP oil volcano in the gulf of mexico is another classic example who multi-national corporations have become too big for their own and everyone else's good. Obama and Cameroon were on the sidelines waiting BP's response in the form of CorExit disspersants rather than nuking the damm thing shut and saving us tons of future headaches.

Exploiting the local workforce with non-livable wages and risking the destruction of the enviroment for maximum profits is standard practice on planet earth. I wonder on other planets what political system they practice, but its probably much better than ours.

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January 2011)

Media manipulation is an aspect of public relations in which partisans create an image or argument that favours their particular interests.[1][2] Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies and propaganda techniques, and often involve the suppression of information or points of view by crowding them out, by inducing other people or groups of people to stop listening to certain arguments, or by simply diverting attention elsewhere.[1][2]

emphasis mine
Wiki

So an article on Wikipedia about media manipulation is being disputed as being biased (manipulated), am I correct on that score?

Irony of ironies batman!

A simple Google search for media manipulation yields:

About 5,670,000 results (0.29 seconds)

Specify it down with "media manipulation" and you get:

About 564,000 results (0.06 seconds)

 
So there looks to be a not inconsiderable amount of data to sift through. 

From the original article:

-- 6,463 original pieces of coverage on the death of Osama bin Laden in the two weeks following its announcement by President Barack Obama on May 1.

-- 4,996 original pieces of coverage about the Japanese earthquake in the two weeks following its occurrence on March 11.

-- 2,784 original pieces of coverage about the uprising in Libya in the two weeks following the initial revolt on Feb. 18.

-- 2,234 original pieces of coverage about tornadoes in the southern U.S. in the two weeks starting April 27 when Alabama and other states were first impacted.

-- 1,885 original pieces of coverage about the British Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in the two weeks leading up to and one day past the ceremony on April 30.

-- 1,304 original pieces of coverage about the debate of the U.S. federal budget between March 28 and April 10, the day after Congress agreed on a measure to keep the government functioning.

-- 688 original pieces of coverage about the controversy surrounding the release of President Obama's birth certificate from April 13 to April 27, when the "long form" of his birth certificate was published.

source

Let's crunch a few numbers shall we?

Fukushima got 77.30% of Bin Laden coverage (new acronym alert, BLC)
Libiya - 43.09% BLC
The midwest tornado outbreak - 34.57% BLC
The royal wedding - 29.17% BLC
The federal budget - 20.18% BLC
And the birth certificate yawned at - 10.65% BLC

It would be interesting to somehow compare traffic on each of those topics here at ATS and see what comparisons and contrasts could be gleaned fom looking at the two datasets.