Political and cultural contrasts in reporting about disasters: comparing United States and Chinese newspaper portrayals of bridge collapses

摘要

This paper compares the news coverage of bridge collapses in the United States and China to reveal how the cultural, political, and social differences of these two countries influence the ways in which disasters are represented to the public. By applying qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study examines the variations in news articles in different newspapers on bridge collapses. The results of this study indicate that news articles from Chinese newspapers, The People’s Daily and The Shanghai Daily, paid more attention to event description and consequences. News accounts from The Houston Chronicle showed similar patterns as their counterparts in China, but news articles from The New York Times highlighted bridge safety and the responsibility of either the government or specific members of the public in their reports. Chinese reporting may result in more effective risk communication and greater personal awareness of hazards as readers in each country are similarly embedded in discursive contexts that define their roles as consumers of news and as risk managers or decision makers.