Wenchuan earthquake and media social responsibility: subject analysis related to accountability of news reports in five Chinese newspapers

Abstract

問責是媒體履行社會責任的有效途徑之一,2008年發生的汶川地震是中國媒體建設問責制度的良好契機。本文對國內五份主要報紙媒體中有關汶川地震的11515篇報道按照問責主題進行了二次主題抽取,對抽取出的249篇報道進行了主題詞統計和分析。調查發現:國內媒體已經開始建設問責制度,不同的媒體由于定位和特征的不同,在問責主題的選擇上也有顯著差異。在此基礎上,提出了政府應協同媒體在災害管理過程中充分發揮并提高問責的功能和效能,促使媒體在危機溝通中發揮積極主動作用等建議。 The 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake stimulated Chinese Mass Media to construct the mechanism of accountability.On the base of 11515 reports from five Chinese mainstream newspapers that gave reports about the earthquake,the paper investigates and analyses the keywords of 249 reports directly related to accountability by comparison methodology.The study finds out that,Chinese mass media has started to fulfill their social responsibility in terms of accountability,but the main topics of accounting differ greatly among the reports. The authors finally suggested that government should adapt an integrated stra tegy to encourage media to play a more active role in communicating crisis by enhancing their ability of accountability.