Author:

Keywords:

Media channels, Risk perception, 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident

Abstract:

This research provides nuclear emergency communicators with information regarding which media to use in the case of a nuclear emergency and which information to provide to the public, even beyond the directly affected zone. It investigated the influence of twelve media channels (traditional media, new media and social media) on the perceived risk posed by radiation released from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, on respondents’ own health and that of the population in general. The analysis controlled for attitude towards nuclear energy, gender, education, satisfaction with the media coverage and duration of attention paid to the coverage. The study uses empirical data from computer-assisted personal interviews (N>1000). The data are representative for the Belgian population with respect to six socio-demographic variables: gender, age, language, education, region and level of urbanisation. Results show that some media channels do influence risk perception. Television, interpersonal communication and the category of miscellaneous online sources are significant predictors of the perceived health-related risk of the nuclear accident. More favourable attitudes towards nuclear power, longer attention to the coverage, and higher satisfaction with the provided information predict lower risk perception. Interpersonal communication is significantly related to satisfaction with the coverage: those unsatisfied with the information were more likely to engage in interpersonal communication. Combined with the significant predictive power of satisfaction with the media coverage, it is evident that the media indeed play a role in shaping the risk perception of a nuclear accident. Future research could look into the quantitative and qualitative differences in content between different media channels and an additional longitudinal study would provide more definitive clues on causality.