Having lived in Hawaii for many years, my mom still reads Hawaiian newspapers online such as the Star Advertiser, and so I decided to look there first for an article on the 3.11 disaster. Given that Hawaii is much closer to Japan than any of the other states in America, I assumed that their coverage of the disaster would be much more sensationalized and would heavily depict the worries of the people regarding the spread of nuclear radiation to the islands. As I searched through the articles related to Japan, however, I found that almost all of the articles were written in a matter-of-fact sort of way with little exaggeration, even on the days directly following the disaster. In one particular article that was written just one day after the event (see link below), the writer clearly expressed the severity of the situation while still giving accurate information, which contrasted many of the sensationalized articles I read from other American sources. Being a person with family members in Japan/a person who was planning to study abroad in Japan shortly after the disaster took place, I feel that I was extremely involved in reading articles online and watching the news, and it was extremely frustrating to be surrounded by so much contradicting and plain ridiculous information. While various American sources depicted Japan as a complete wasteland and spouted unrealistic worries about radiation terrorizing the states, this author of this article seemed calm, collected, and well-informed, which is very refreshing. Perhaps the close vicinity to Japan allowed this newspaper to gain more reliable information or maybe the Hawaiian mentality is just less dramatic, but either way I really wish there were more articles such as this one available to the people during this time of crisis. I understand that fear sells, but if the Star Advertiser can provide accurate articles without losing readers or going bankrupt, then I don’t see why the rest of the world can’t do the same.
“Swamped and Shaken in Japan”
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