understanding news geography and major determinants of global news coverage of disasters

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Understanding News Geography and Major Determinants of Global News Coverage of Disasters Jisun An and Haewoon Kwak Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) C+J Symposium 2014

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Presented at Computation + Journalism Symposium 2014 (http://symposium2014.computation-and-journalism.com).

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Page 1: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Understanding  News  Geography  and    Major  Determinants  of    Global  News  Coverage  of  Disasters  

Jisun  An  and  Haewoon  Kwak      Qatar  Computing  Research  Institute  (QCRI)

C+J  Symposium  2014

Page 2: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

‘Sucked  into  a  hole’

Page 3: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

10  most-­‐read  news  at  BBC  on  17th  Oct  2014

Celebrity

Technology

Local  newsEnvironment

Page 4: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

10  most-­‐read  news  at  BBC  on  17th  Oct  2014

5  out  of  10  most-­‐read  news  articles  are  about  foreign  disasters.

Page 5: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

News  outlets  keep  

reporting  foreign  disasters.

Page 6: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

In  a  process  of  

globalisation,  a  

foreign  disaster  

can  have  a  political  

or  economical  

impact.  

Page 7: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Such  emotional  

news  raise  sympathy  

for  others  which  can  

be  a  key  to  drive  

more  audience  to  

the  news  sites.

Page 8: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

People  suffered  

from  those  

disasters  wait  for  

a  global  aid  to  be  

recovered.

Page 9: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Which  disasters  receive  more  

attention  from  foreign  news  media?  

Page 10: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Theory  of  newsworthiness

• Proposed by Galtung and Ruge, 1965

• Frequency, intensity, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, and continuity of an event

• Some characteristics of an actor (e.g. identity) involved in the event

Page 11: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Effect  of  national  attributes

A guest country

(where a disaster happens)

A host country

(where news media exists)

Page 12: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Effect  of  national  attributes

Population, degree

of press freedom,

geographic size,

economic power, etc

A guest country

(where a disaster happens)

A host country

(where news media exists)

National traits

Page 13: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Effect  of  national  attributes

Population, degree

of press freedom,

geographic size,

economic power, etc

A guest country

(where a disaster happens)

A host country

(where news media exists)

National traits

RelatednessGeographic distance,

shared language,

volume of trade,

past colonial ties

Page 14: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

A  wide  range  of  national  attributes  and  power  

relationship  has  been  examined,  but  results  are  

inconsistent,  mainly  due  to  cultural  difference.

Page 15: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

A  wide  range  of  national  attributes  and  power  

relationship  has  been  examined,  but  results  are  

inconsistent,  mainly  due  to  cultural  difference.

Examine

d  inter

nation

al  

news  co

verage

 in  a  

single

 count

ry

Page 16: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Which  disasters  are  most  

likely  to  be  ‘globally’  covered?

Page 17: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

why  news  about  

disasters?

Page 18: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

News  geography

Global  news  coverage

GDELT  dataset

Which  countries  are  presented  in  one  country’  

international  disaster  news  and  to  what  extent?

Which  disasters  are  most  likely  to  be  

‘globally’  covered?

3,574,627  events  (666,150  natural  and  man-­‐made  disasters)  

happening  in  205  countries  from  April  2013  to  July  2014    

Page 19: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

News  geography

Global  news  coverage

GDELT  dataset

Which  countries  are  presented  in  one  country’  

international  disaster  news  and  to  what  extent?

Which  disasters  are  most  likely  to  be  

‘globally’  covered

3,574,627  events  (666,150  natural  and  man-­‐made  disasters)  

happening  in  205  countries  from  April  2013  to  July  2014    

Page 20: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters
Page 21: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

GDELT  dataset

• monitors  the  world's  news  media  in  print,  broadcast,  and  web  formats,  in  over  100  languages  

• compiles  a  list  of  every  person,  organization,  location,  themes  (events),  etc.  from  every  news  report  

• stretches  back  to  January  1,  1979  and  update  daily  

• leverages  Google  Translate  for  Research  to  augment  human  translation

Page 22: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters
Page 23: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Example

“47  Jihadists  were  killed”  was  found  in  ten  different  articles  that  day

• NumArts=10,    

• CountType=KILL,  

• Count=47,    

• ObjectType=”jihadists”,

Page 24: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Fields• DATE  

• NUMARTS  

• COUNTTYPE  

-­‐ AFFECT,  ARREST,  KIDNAP,  KILL,  PROTEST,  SEIZE,  WOUND..  

• COUNTS  

• THEMES  

-­‐ NATURAL  DISASTER,  MANMADE  DISASTER,  …  

• LOCATIONS  

• OBJECTIVE  

-­‐ “Christian  missionaries”    from  “20  Christian  missionaries  were  arrested”  

• SOURCEURLS

Page 25: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Inferring the country of news media by alexa.com

Page 26: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

News  geography

Global  news  coverage

GDELT

Which  countries  are  presented  in  one  country’  

international  disaster  news  and  to  what  extent?

Which  disasters  are  most  likely  to  be  

‘globally’  covered

3,574,627  events  (666,150  natural  and  man-­‐made  disasters)

happening  in  205  countries  from  April  2013  to  July  2014    

Page 27: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Which  countries  are  presented  in  

one  country’  international  disaster  

news  and  to  what  extent?

Page 28: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters
Page 29: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters
Page 30: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters
Page 31: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Examples  of  cartogram

Page 32: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

News  geography  seen  by  North  America

Page 33: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

North  America

South  Asia

Page 34: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Strong  regionalism  in  reporting  foreign  disasters

Disasters  covered  by  each  region    

do  not  overlap  with  one  another.    

All  coefficients  are  positive,  but  less  than  0.5.  

Page 35: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Strong  regionalism  in  reporting  foreign  disasters

The  unique  interest  of  each  region  makes  it  difficult  for  research  

relying  on  a  single  country  or  region  to  obtain  external  validity.  

Page 36: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

News  geography

Global  news  coverage

GDELT

Which  countries  are  presented  in  one  country’  

international  disaster  news  and  to  what  extent?

Which  disasters  are  most  likely  to  be  

‘globally’  covered?

3,574,627  events  (666,150  natural  and  man-­‐made  disasters)

happening  in  205  countries  from  April  2013  to  July  2014    

Page 37: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Which  one  would  be  more  likely  to  be  covered  by  more  counties?

Page 38: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Which  one  would  be  more  likely  to  be  covered  by  more  counties?

“A  baby  killed  by  her  mum”  

“200  people  killed  by  flooding  in  Malaysia”

or

Page 39: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Which  one  would  be  more  likely  to  be  covered  by  more  counties?

“A  baby  killed  by  her  mum”  

“200  people  killed  by  flooding  in  Malaysia”

or

Page 40: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Why  would  one  be  covered  more  than  the  other?

“200  people  killed  by  flooding  in  Malaysia”school  girls

Page 41: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Why  would  one  be  covered  more  than  the  other?

“200  people  killed  by  flooding  in  Malaysia”school  girls2000

Page 42: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Why  would  one  be  covered  more  than  the  other?

“200  people  killed  by  flooding  in  Malaysia”school  girls2000 USA

Page 43: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Why  would  one  be  covered  more  than  the  other?

“200  people  killed  by  flooding  in  Malaysia”school  girls2000 USA

Would  this  then  get  more  coverage?

Page 44: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Determinants  of  global  news  coverage

We  build  a  hierarchical  (mixed-­‐effect)  multiple  regression  model  where

Dependent  variable:

Number  of  countries  covering  a  disaster  

Page 45: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Determinants  of  global  news  coverage

We  build  a  hierarchical  (mixed-­‐effect)  multiple  regression  model  where

Dependent  variable:

Number  of  countries  covering  a  disaster  

Independent  variable:

1) the  attributes  of  a  nation  e.g.,  GDP,  population,  etc  

2) the  attributes  of  a  disaster  e.g.,  disaster  type,  the  number  of  affected  people,  etc  

3) logistics  of  news  gathering  e.g.,  whether  INAs  report  a  disaster  or  not

Page 46: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Candidate  independent  variables

National  variables:  GDP  (gross  domestic  product)  per  capita,  GNI  (gross  national  in-­‐  come)  per  capita,  military  expenditure,  population,  land  size,  population  density,  merchandise  exports  (US$),  merchandise  imports  (US$),  number  of  scientific  journal  publications,  unemployment  rate,  foreign  aid  received  (US$),  Internet  use  (per  100  people),  mobile  cellular  subscriptions  (per  100  people),  homicide  rate  (per  100,000  people),  index  of  press  freedom,  the  world  giving  index,  and  the  political  stability  index.    

Disaster  variables:  a  disaster  type,  a  fine-­‐grained  subtype  of  a  disaster,  the  unexpectedness  of  a  disaster,  the  number  of  people  involved  in  the  disaster,  the  type  of  people’s  involvement  in  the  disaster  (denoted  as  count  type),  and  the  type  of  people  affected  by  the  disaster  (denoted  as  object  type).    

Logistic  of  news  gathering  variable:  one  binary  variable  to  show  whether  a  disaster  is  reported  by  any  of  international  news  agencies  (Agence  France-­‐Presse  (AFP),  Associated  Press  (AP)  and  Reuters)

Page 47: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Determinants  of  global  news  coverage

We  build  a  hierarchical  (mixed-­‐effect)  multiple  regression  model  where

Dependent  variable:

Number  of  countries  covering  a  disaster  

14  independent  variable:

1) the  attributes  of  a  nation  e.g.,  GDP,  population,  etc  

2) the  attributes  of  a  disaster  e.g.,  disaster  type,  the  number  of  affected  people,  etc  

3) logistics  of  news  gathering  e.g.,  whether  INAs  report  a  disaster  or  not

1  control  variable:  A  country  a  disaster  happened

Page 48: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

• Disasters  in  countries  with  

high  population  tend  to  be  

more  globally  covered.

Page 49: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

• Disasters  happening  in  

politically  unstable  countries  

receive  more  global  attention.  

Page 50: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

• The  more  people  killed  or  

affected  by  a  disaster,  the  

more  countries  the  disaster  

will  be  covered  in.

Page 51: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

• Kidnap  is  one  of  the  disaster  

types  that  gets  the  most  

attention  from  other  

countries.  

Page 52: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

• Some  types  of  disasters  are  more  

likely  to  be  chosen  than  others.  For  

example,  Aftershocks  and  Flooding  

types  tend  to  be  reported  in  more  

countries  than  the  other  types.  

Page 53: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Three  national  variables,  which  are  log(population),  

mobile  subscription,  political  stability,  explain  3.1%  of  the  

variance.

Page 54: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Disaster  variables  are  added  to  the  first  model    

The  characteristics  of  

a  disaster  themselves  explain  an  

additional  4.3%  of  the  variance.  

Page 55: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

INAs  covered  explains  an  additional  18%  of  the  variance!

Page 56: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Summary

• GDELT,  a  valuable  resource  to  study  news  flow  around  the  world  

• A  strong  regionalism  in  reporting  disasters  

• A  prominent  role  of  INAs  in  global  news  coverage  of  disasters

Page 57: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

Future  Direction

Page 58: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters
Page 59: Understanding News Geography and  Major Determinants of  Global News Coverage of Disasters

We  are  keen  to  collaborate  with  you!  

Thanks!    

@JisunAn  @haewoon  

Qatar  Computing  Research  Institute  (QCRI)