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﻿Media Coverage of : Canterbury, New Zealand Earthquake

Taylor Baresic .  Amanda Dobkowitz . Ivonnie Dulce .  Nereida Martinez .  Brittany Mcshea . Courtney Paul

//"I was asleep when suddenly the house started shaking and there was this smashing sound, I thought a large truck had just driven through the front window." //

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Im my 51 years on this earth I have never felt so pertrified..my first thoughts was we had been hit by a nuclear bomb and it was Armageddon. Never ever want to experience it again" //

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"My wife and I just heard the noise and woke up. By the time we were on the floor running for the children ... we just got shook to the floor—the earthquake was just that powerful." //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[ <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Amanda Dobkowitz <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">]

__<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 280%;">The Earthquake﻿ __ <span style="color: #f90661; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 220%;">﻿ <span style="color: #f90661; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 200%;">﻿ <span style="color: #f90661; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">﻿ <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">﻿By <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">: <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">Amanda Dobkowitz <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">On September 4, 2010 at 4:35am (local time), an enormous 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Canterbury region of New Zealand. The epicenter was 7.5 miles deep and 35 miles north-west of Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, which has a population of 386,000. Christchurch received the worst damages from the earthquake. The quake caused significant damage to the town and completely destroyed some buildings, roads, and bridges. Power outages had been reported as far as Dunedin, which is 223 miles south-west of Christchurch ("Strong earthquake rocks," 2010).

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Surprisingly, this monstrous earthquake caused no causalities and only two people suffered serious injuries (Adetunji, 2010). There was a formal curfew in place between the hours of 7pm and 7am in order to protect the public from falling debris. Anyone breaching the curfew could had be arrested. There were also reports of people smashing shop windows and stealing merchandise. ("Weather the next," 2010) During the night following the earthquake, 19 aftershocks were reported by the GeoNet website ("Aftershocks rattle christchurch," 2010). On the Geonet website they describe how their site provides public access to hazards information, including earthquake reports and Volcanic Alert Bulletins.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Radio New Zealand reported that the quake was felt as a long, rolling motion lasting up to 40 seconds, and that Christchuch was continuing to feel aftershocks. The USGS said one aftershock had a magnitude of 5.7 ("Strong earthquake rocks," 2010). Though this disaster was covered by reporters more locally than globally, it was heard all around the world. The earthquake was covered through various outlets such as television and radio stations, newspapers, and even Twitter and Facebook. This was a significant moment in history and it will never be forgotten.

__<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 280%;">﻿Traditional News Media Coverage __ <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">﻿By <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">: <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">Brittany McShea media type="youtube" key="LcKaqEKePiA?fs=1" height="276" width="460" align="right" <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The sheer magnitude of the Canterbury earthquake generated mass media interest. Both local and foreign news outlets scrambled to report the destruction to the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Local radio stations were the first to report the early morning quake with talkback calls at 4:35 a.m. reporting the shaking (Brown, 2010). Local television news stations quickly followed this outlet. Some of these stations devoted immense amounts of coverage to the earthquake. New Zealand’s 3 News flew additional reporters to the scene and established the largest live broadcast capability in the area. Additionally, 3 News (2010) reported providing coverage to foreign news stations such as Sky News Australia, CBS and Reuters citing a “global responsibility” to the dispersal of information.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Television and newspapers around the world reported the huge quake. American news agencies such as CNN, Fox News and MSNBC as well as England’s BBC and Guardian all provided time for coverage of the earthquake. In fact, the prevalence of coverage of this natural disaster across news agencies is one of its most striking aspects. Elisa Brown (2010) of Media Splooge noted that people will be equipped with, “the best historical record of any natural disaster in this [New Zealand] country, and a signal of the rise of the general public taking information gathering into their own hands…” as a result of this earthquake. Brown also states that a surprising aspect among the coverage was the high number of positive, human-interest stories (2010). News outlets took various angles on the disaster story including: assessing property damage, organizing aid efforts, and attributing better construction for the zero death count of the quake. The competitive environment among the news outlets forced reporters to be more creative with their stories and provide more content to the public. This disaster story serves as an indication of the changing realm of the media environment.

__<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 280%;">﻿Compare and Contrast Global Media Coverage __ <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">﻿By <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">: <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;"> Nereida Martinez <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The natural disaster that occurred on September 4, 2010 was covered via various news outlets across America. [|CNN], [|Fox News] and [|MSNBC] were among the few that provided the public with mass information. This earthquake however, was predominantly covered in New Zealand. Online news sites were the ones working the most to put out information.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With the earthquake happening at 4:35 a.m. on a Saturday morning, news didn’t spread as fast as it could have. Since staff is short on the weekends, it took a couple of hours for news sources to publish and provide their stories.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As previously mentioned, the earthquake was covered locally more than it was globally. The first outlet to feed information to the public: radio. [|Radio New Zealand] managed to provide the most up-to-date news about the earthquake (Media Coverage of the Canterbury Earthquake, 2010). Following this was the <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">online newspaper the [|New Zealand Herald], television channel [|TVNewZealand] and the website [|Stuff].

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Foreign coverage seemed to be more comprehensive than coverage in America. TV ONE had live coverage of the event and managed to create 90-minute night specials along with hourly updates (Extensive Coverage of Canterbury Quake, 2010). The New Zealand Herald was very informative because it not only provided us with the latest news, it also provided the public with information about historical quakes that occurred around Christchurch. Stuff online published a story about a bigger earthquake predicted to hit New Zealand. News outlets in New Zealand massively covered the earthquake, but the people in America were certainly very well informed.

__<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 280%;">Impact of Visual Journalism __ <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">By <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">: <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;"> Ivonnie Dulce <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> Journalism within itself is an important part of news media because it informs the public about tragedies, prosperity, and crucial information about society. Journalism accompanied by images or video only proves to strengthen the coverage of the story because of the ability to visually comprehend the gravity of the situation. In the case of the Canterbury, New Zealand earthquake, many news organizations such as CNN, BBC News, National Geographic, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, New Zealand Herald, and many others covered the story including pictures and videos attached to their website or blog. The utilization of this technique was essential to further portray the damage Canterbury received from the earthquake.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Information was conveyed through a variety of methods: short captions were inserted below pictures, photos were incorporated into news blogs/articles, and videos embodied images of destruction from the quake and interviews from the people affected (Alexander, 2010). In other words, it is one thing to hear a journalist explain the affliction being endured by the people of Canterbury, but it is another level to witness the hardship each person must now bear due to the damage of the earthquake. As reported by CNN, New Zealand will embrace at least one billion dollars of reparation costs (Walker, 2010). What goes in one billion dollars to rebuild a city? What exact damages were inflicted and what do they actually look like? Was there a pattern in what was wrecked? Without the visualization of journalism, people lack the concrete details to manifest a proper image of the situation.

__<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 280%;">Social Media Interaction __ <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">By <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">: <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;"> Courtney Paul <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After Canterbury, New Zealand’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake this past September, social media was used to spread information about the disaster and connect people with loved ones. This disaster was noteworthy not only because there were no casualties involved, but also because of the lead role social media took to disseminate information. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, and photo-sharing and video sites such as Vimeo, Flickr and Dailymotion were used to post pictures and record experiences of the catastrophe. <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Perhaps the most inspiring thing to come out of this catastrophe is the outpouring of support on Facebook for cleanup efforts. A New Zealand university student set up a group called Student Volunteer Base for Earthquake Clean Up that, at press time, has attracted 3,802 members. These volunteers worked to distribute free water bottles, clean up debris, and ultimately celebrate the city’s survival. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Nielson Media Research group analyzed various social media sites to determine which one had the highest audience and found some key facts:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Twitter received the highest overall volume of posts to a public forum, with 7,206 comments related to the disaster
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">27,034 comments were posted on social networking sites and message boards in the six days after the first Christchurch earthquake struck
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hashtags were widely used to associate posts on Twitter with the earthquake, especially #eqnz (1,741 posts), as well as #christchurch (355 posts) and #christchurchquake (183 posts)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tony Boyte, the Research Director for Nielson’s online division in New Zealand summarized the findings by saying, “The volume of social media activity around the Christchurch earthquake highlights that New Zealanders didn’t hesitate to jump online to not only receive the latest updates, but also to add to the spreading of the news through their consumer generated media tools” ("New Zealanders turn,” 2010).

__<span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 280%;">GeoNet __ <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">By <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">: <span style="color: #73a5f2; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 175%;">Taylor Baresic <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The country of New Zealand is located on the edge of the Australian and the Pacific plate, an area in the world where natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and landslides occur at high rates. If any of these natural disasters were to occur, the whole country, including the economy, would be deeply affected. This is the reason why the website, [|GeoNet], was developed to provide the citizens of New Zealand with a way to acc <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ess information regarding natural disasters and ways to prepare, for free.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">According to the website, GeoNet is an online resource in New Zealand, which provides citizens with a geological hazard monitoring system. In order to detect and analyze natural disasters, such as earthquakes, GeoNet uses a variety of geophysical instruments, automated software applications, and talented staff members to come up with the data. The Earthquake Emergency Response system is one of the most important features of the site because it provides data on the location, size and nature of the earthquake quickly, giving people the opportunity to act fast. Various other data resources and tools can be found on GeoNet, including a list of past earthquakes in New Zealand, recent earthquakes, earthquake maps, commonly asked questions, and links for further information.

GeoNet played a huge role on September 4, 2010 when the 7.1 M earthquake hit Canterbury because within thirty minutes information on the major earthquake was on the site for the public to view. Analysts from GeoNet were able to detect a hidden fault underneath the Canterbury plains that had been undergoing stress for thousands of years, which is why the earthquake caused severe damage. GeoNet used there seismograph stations to determine the magnitude of the earthquake, the location, and the epicenter, and then relayed that information to the GeoNet data management centre, which controls the monitoring system. This website allowed people in New Zealand to gain access of a complete description of the earthquake including pictures, and aftershocks or landslides that were a result of this natural disaster <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Sources:

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">
 * 1) About geonet. //Geonet.// Retrieved from http://www.geonet.org.nz/about/
 * 2) Adetunji, Jo. (2010, September 4). Earthquake strikes christchurch in new zealand. //guardian.co.uk home Location//, Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/04/earthquake-christchurch-new-zealand
 * 3) Aftershocks rattle christchurch after new zealand quake. (2010, September 4). //BBC News//, Retrieved from []
 * 4) Alexander, D. (2010). New zealand earthquake pictures: walls, road crumble. //National Geographic Daily News,// Retrieved from []
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 * 6) Brown, R. (2010, September). Little pieces of a big picture, Retrieved from http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/little-pieces-of-a-big-picture/
 * 7) Earthquake Commission, GNS Science. (2010). //GeoNet.// Retrieved from http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/historic-earthquakes/top-nz/quake-13.html
 * 8) Extensive Coverage of Canterbury Earthquake. (2010, September 4). //Scoop.co.nz//, Retrieved from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1009/S00070/extensive-coverage-of-canterbury-quake.htm
 * 9) Media Coverage: The Canterbury Earthquake. (2010, September 6). //Sciencemediacentre.co.nz//, Retrieved from http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2010/09/06/media-coverage-the-canterbury-earthquake/
 * 10) MediaWorksNZ. (n.d.). 3News provides comprehensive earthquake coverage. Retrieved from http://www.mediaworks.co.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=134&articleID=103
 * 11) New zealanders turn to social media to hear and share news of Christchurch earthquake//: Nielsen//. (2010, September 13). Retrieved from http://nz.nielsen.com/news/Christchurch_SocialMediaSep10
 * 12) Strong earthquake rocks new zealand's south island. (2010, September 3). //BBC News//, Retrieved from []
 * 13) Walker, B. (2010). New zealand region grappling to recover from powerful quake. //CNN World//, Retrieved from []
 * 14) Weather the next threat after earthquake . (2010, September 4). //Stuff.co.nz//, Retrived from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4094986/Massive-7-4-quake-hits-South-Island