Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2016 | Page 54

Global Security and Intelligence Studies
Figure 4: Media Coverage of Typhoon Yolanda
Source: Media Matters for America: http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/11/19/typhoon-haiyanstudy-finds-media-rarely-covered/196961
about making donations and participating in relief efforts were shared via tweets and
mentions on Facebook. Roughly 290,729 posts mentioned “relief efforts,” “donations,”
medical missions,” and “financial aid” with regard to the global response to Yolanda.
These social mentions peaked on November 12, which coincided with the bulk of the
coverage on CNN International (Bandojo 2013).
However, the U.S. public was much less engaged with news coverage of the
typhoon than previous natural disasters (see table 4). For example, 32% of Americans
closely followed news coverage of the typhoon in comparison to the 55% who closely
followed the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Fukushima, and the 58% that closely
followed the 2004 Indian Ocean, and the 60% that closely followed the 2010 earthquake
in Haiti. Between November 14 and 17 the typhoon was tied with economic news
at 32% with healthcare at 37% as the top news story. The percentage of Americans
closely following the typhoon mirrored levels of the 2008 earthquake in China (30%)
and the 2010 earthquake in Chile (27%) (Pew 2013).
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