Japan: Quake, Tsunami and Nuclear Coverage

Anna Botting conducting a live interview using a translator from Fukushima City.

From what I saw of the coverage this afternoon they had more or less abandoned the 'news in 20 minutes, every 20 minutes' format (which replaced the 'every 15 minutes' bulletins last week), think I am right in saying they also used the v/o at the top of the hour during the afternoon.

NHK's coverage continues to be the most informative and concise.

I must say ITV are providing decent coverage of the quake and tsunami this weekend (in contrast to, in my opinion, a somewhat poor News at Ten on Friday evening). Both yesterday's evening bulletins and today's early evening news were on top form - good clear reporting with not too much 'overanalysis' of the situation.

The C4 News Special was superb, particularly Alex Thomson's report.

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Yeah I thought it was better tonight, I think the fact that the bulletins are short is a positive rather than a negative in ITV's case, as you say there's not to much overanalysis. With the normal longer bulletin's they seem to overanalyse everything and have the "end of thge world" approach.

Also I know there's been some debate over people "stalking" presenters the last couple of days and I hope this doesn't come across like that, but I read this earlier and just thought it was somewhat intresting.

From Mark Austin's Mirror column.


Seem's Mark was going to be on location rather than Julie and ITV News had to change their plans last minute, unless they were both going on location, althought that seems unlikely.

That must be a special edition of NHK Special.

For NHK's news graphics, NHK World's Newsline has the awesome graphic packages, while their domestic news bulletins has a not-so-fancy graphics.

BBC News Channel broke away from Breakfast at 0800, and is now taking a World News bulletin from N8 while Breakfast continues on BBC One.

I have heard a few comments from american's turning to BBC, Aljazzera (spl?), and NHK's coverage because it is less biased, and more informative. I have to say apart from the repetition, the NHK Coverage has been very good. I have liked the BBC Guests who have provided information.

I have also been following Kevin Cooney who has done a number of live streams from Tokyo dispelling some myths and answering questions.

As it stands so far, I still want to have my 10 day holiday in Tokyo from March 23rd, but if the situation gets worse, this may not be possible. I am keeping my eye on the Foreign Office advice, as well as Virgin Atlantic's website which may change as things go on.

I have dipped in occasionally to Sky News, but I found their montage into the break a little off putting, and generally have found them a bit more emotive about what is happening.

Sky's coverage seems to have stepped up a gear this morning, good reports from Anna Botting and Holly Williams and they have been less reliant on using the same footage over and over again. There presence has also been increased with an extra team arriving last night, led by Colin Brazier presenting from Tokyo.

Johnathan Samuels is in Japan reporting for Channel Five News.

Sky News are giving me the impression they are trying to get the nuclear experts to make it sound worse than it is.

Has Peter Sharp been sent to Japan? This story would have been perfect for him given his experience in the region. Im not sure why the news teams are focusing on the power station so much given the catastrophe of the tsunami itself killing tens of thousands.

Because the power station is an ongoing story, and people are scared on nuclear power. Watching scenes of the cleanup is upsetting, whereas immenient nuclear destruction is scary. Scary always beats upsetting in the ratings. Then there's also the element of wanting to be watching when (if) the power station does explode. Seeing distraught people looking at their destroyed homes or telling us about there lost loved ones doesn't have the same ability to keep people watching, even if it is the bigger and more important story.